In 1972, it didn’t matter that the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun had taken place fifty years earlier. It didn’t matter that the subject of the exhibition had died over 3,000 years ago. Tutankhamun cast a spell over the population of Britain and the world, and school children, senior citizens, dedicated Egyptologists and the just plain curious queued happily that summer if they hadn’t already obtained tickets.

For Londoners, it was Tutankhamun’s summer. The crowds of visitors to the capital had plenty of attractions from which to choose, but the Tutankhamun Exhibition exerted the strongest pull of all. Packing case after packing case had arrived from Cairo filled with everything that a young king might need in life and death, with an entourage that would impress the most demanding of monarchs. Only the subject himself was absent, his body staying in Egypt, the land of his birth, where it has always remained.

Inside the museum, the specially designed exhibition was crowded and stuffy at times, a constant movement of people making it possible to take only brief glimpses of some objects. A slight claustrophobia only added to the atmospheric display. For once, heads of the king, and postcards of his jewellery, outnumbered Union Jack t-shirts and models of London double-deckers on the stalls outside.

Thirty years later, there have been some significant changes at the British Museum. Museums now face a harsher economic reality. Their visitors are ever more demanding and knowledgeable. There are more of them, too; numbers have risen from two million in 1974 to over five million in 1999. Presentation and marketing are just as important as conservation. The quality of the exhibits, however, is still critical to the success of any permanent exhibition.

There is some irony in the fact that one of the most popular exhibits on the Egyptian funerary galleries is one of Tutankhamun’s humbler forebears. "Ginger", whose reddened and desiccated body lies crouched in a foetal position in a simple burial, dates to a period in Egypt’s prehistory when there was little to distinguish king or commoner with regard to grave goods. He is pointed out to first time visitors who will recall him fondly in years to come. Visitors to the Museum’s Egyptology collection tend to take a proprietorial attitude to the exhibits.

"Eagerly-sought" is how the impressive British Museum collection of mummies is described now they are housed in the latest Egyptology development, the Roxie Walker Galleries of Egyptian Funerary Archaeology. Sponsorship from the Bioanthropology Foundation and the British Museum Society has enabled an entirely new approach to the presentation of mummies and related funerary items. Rather than viewing each object in isolation, this permanent display presents items from complete burial groups, enabling the breath-taking coffins and goods of Lady Henutmehyt to be displayed in context. This is just one of a number of exhibits to benefit from the redesigned galleries. The Museum is one of a number of institutions that are now involved in using non-destructive techniques to investigate mummies.

The mummies exert a powerful fascination. However, probably some of the greatest strengths of the collection are the massive stone statues, and wall paintings from Egyptian tombs. The acquisition of such items is now an even more contentious issue than the displaying the dead, with arguments raised by both sides regarding the restoration of items to their original homeland. Recently a Greek professor proved that the argument is still a complex one when he supported the retention of the Elgin Marbles by the Museum.

The permanent and temporary exhibitions on Ancient Egypt are the Egyptology showcase of the Museum. That is only part of the Museum story, however. Visitors may not find the Museum’s collection of papyri, with their occasionally stunning images, as exciting as the funerary collections, but none the less they are the core of research that has gone on for decades, and an impressive series of published translations.

While the most visible work going on at the Museum in recent years has centred on the development of the Great Court project, that should see completion this autumn, the Museum has also been moving into the unseen world of Cyberspace with an educational Egyptology web site that is popular with both children and adults alike.

The education site can be accessed through the general Egyptology site at www.british-museum.ac.uk/egyptian/EA/. Education has always been another of the strengths of the Museum, with well-supported lecture programmes and a flourishing publishing arm. Overseas, the Museum funds excavation and recording work in Egypt and elsewhere.

State of the art technology for exploring all the museum’s galleries will be on view in the Great Court when it is open. The aim of the project is to provide a resource centre for teachers and students.

In addition, visitors will catch a glimpse "behind the scenes at the Museum" in the new Study Centre where they can learn something of the conservation work involved in protecting ancient artefacts. Nearly 10,000 objects from the Museum have been on loan to other UK collections at some time.

It is less than 200 years since the Museum was founded by a special Act of Parliament. In those days collections were eclectic and represented the sometimes whimsical tastes of individuals and great collecting families. These days the public demands more sophisticated displays with the latest technology and greater thought given to presentation that is logical as well as attractive.

When the Museum first opened its doors to the general public on 15 January 1759, the founding collections came from Sir Hans Sloane, the Cotton family, Robert and Edward Harley and the Earls of Oxford. Today hundreds of individuals are involved both in practical and research work in the Museum and at the endless task to attract funding and raise awareness of what the museum can provide. "All-singing, all-dancing," is how some commentators view the changing face of modern museums.

The proof of success lies in whether visitors go away satisfied and come back again. As 1,000 wide-eyed school children pour through the doors every day during term time to make the acquaintance of Ginger, the flood of visitors seems likely to continue.