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The Great Exhibition - September 2008
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| "It is my anxious desire to promote among nations
the cultivation of all those arts which are fostered by peace, and which
in their turn contribute to maintain the peace of the world." |
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- Queen Victoria |
Crystal Fountain in the transept looking north
The Crystal Palace and its Contents...
page 17 |
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The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry
of all Nations was held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, from
May 1 to October 15, 1851. It was the first international exhibition of
manufactured products and was enormously influential on the development
of many aspects of society including art and design education, international
trade relations, and the advent of tourism. The Exhibition also set a precedent
for the many international exhibitions which followed during the next century.
The Great Exhibition was organized by Prince Albert, Henry Cole, Francis
Fuller, Charles Dilke and other members of the Royal Society for the Encouragement
of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce as a celebration of modern industrial
technology and design. It can be argued that the Great Exhibition was mounted
in response to the highly successful national French Industrial Exposition
held in Paris, on the Champs Élysées, in 1844. |
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Click on an image for a larger view
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 Interior
of the Transept, as seen from the South Entrance
Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue... (1851-1852) page xvi
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A special building, nicknamed The Crystal Palace,
was designed by Joseph Paxton and Charles Fox to house the show. Spanning
19 acres, the architecturally adventurous building was based on Paxton's
experience designing the great greenhouses at Chatsworth House for the sixth
Duke of Devonshire. It was constructed from cast-iron frame components and
glass made almost exclusively in Birmingham and Smethwick. The massive glass
house was 1848 feet long by 454 feet wide, and went from plans to grand
opening in just nine months. |
View in the Western Nave - Keith's silk trophy
The Crystal Palace and its Contents... pages 312-313
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The Crystal Palace as a winter garden
The Crystal Palace and its Contents...
pages 264-265
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The building was later moved and re-erected
in an enlarged form at Sydenham in south London, an area that was renamed
Crystal Palace. Tragically, it was destroyed by fire in 1936. |
Tunis Court
The Crystal Palace and its Contents...
page 181
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Six million people, equivalent to a third of
the entire population of Great Britain, visited the Great Exhibition. In
the great glass halls the public could admire the works designed and created
to embrace the interlinked fields of art, design, science, and manufacture.
There were 13,937 exhibitors from all corners of the world. Upon entering
the vast, two-storied pavillion one could find such diverse displays as
ornamental ironwork from the Coalbrooke Dale Iron Works of England, elaborately
inlaid furniture by Michael Thonet of Austria, decorative sadlery from Lacey
& Phillips of Philadelphia, as well as delicate porcelain from Villeroy
& Boch of Germany. |
Furs, by Smith and Sons, Nicholay, &c.
The Crystal Palace and its Contents...
page 157
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Scene in the interior of the Great Exhibition
The Crystal Palace and its Contents...
page 41
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Stained Glass Gallery
Crystal Palace: Joseph Paxton and Charles Fox
page 39
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Moving Machinery Hall
Crystal Palace: Joseph Paxton and Charles Fox
page 38
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LaRue's Stall and envelope machinery
The Crystal Palace and its Contents...
page 292
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Of considerable public interest were the machine
tools and other exhibits that reflected the advances made in civil and mechanical
engineering. Sir Daniel Gooch's railway steam locomotives, James Nasmyth's
steam hammer, marine engines by Henry Maudslay, and the crowd pleasing envelope-making
machine by Thomas De La Rue, all the marvels of 19th century technology.
Such attention reflected the considerable esteem that the public held for
Victorian engineers. |
| The profits (£186,000) from the Exhibition were invested
in property in the South Kensington area, close to the site of the Crystal
Palace. Proceeds from the Exhibition were used to fund the Victoria and
Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, all built
in South Kensington, London. This area was nicknamed "Albertopolis"
owing to the large number of cultural and educational institutions constructed
under the patronage of Prince Albert. Today these same institutions remain
free and open to the public. |
The closing of the Great Exhibition, Prince Albert receiving the reports
of the Juries
The Crystal Palace and its Contents...
pages 104-105
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Though a great success, the Exhibition caused
considerable controversy at the time. Some conservatives feared that the
mass of visitors might become a revolutionary mob, while radicals such as
Karl Marx saw the Exhibition as an "emblem of the capitalist fetishism
of commodities". Today the Great Exhibition of 1851 has become a symbol
of the Victorian Age, and its thick catalogue, illustrated with steel engravings,
remains a primary source and standard for High Victorian design. |
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