In 1908 Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith (1859–1944) became chairman of the commission appointed to reorganise the collections of applied art at South Kensington, begun by the British government after the Great Exhibition of 1851. His report was so highly approved that he was offered the post of director and secretary of what was henceforward to be known as the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Harcourt-Smith took up his duties in 1909, when the new building had just been completed, and remained director until his retirement in 1924. Under his directorship the status, rates of pay and working conditions of the technical staff were raised. Students’ rooms were established in all departments and the publication of guides and catalogues was encouraged. Harcourt-Smith also instituted official guide-lecturers and sponsored special displays such as the Franco-British exhibition of 1921.

His arrangement of the contents of the museum according to their material was hailed as an innovation. It lasted until after the evacuation of 1939, when it was abandoned in favour of a chronological sequence, subdivided into primary and secondary collections.