   #copyright

The Great Exhibition

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1750-1900

   The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park 1851.
   The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park 1851.
   The enormous "Crystal Palace" went from plans to grand opening in just
   nine months.
   The enormous "Crystal Palace" went from plans to grand opening in just
   nine months.
   The front entrance of the Great Exhibition.
   The front entrance of the Great Exhibition.
   Paxton's "Crystal Palace" enclosed full-grown trees in Hyde Park.
   Paxton's "Crystal Palace" enclosed full-grown trees in Hyde Park.

   The Great Exhibition, also known as the Crystal Palace Exhibition, was
   an international exhibition held in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15
   October 1851 and the first in a series of World's Fair exhibitions of
   culture and industry that were to be a popular 19th century feature.

   The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations 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 French Industrial
   Exposition of 1844. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, was an
   enthusiastic promoter of a self-financing exhibition; the government
   was persuaded to form the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851
   to establish the viability of hosting such an exhibition.

   A special building, nicknamed The Crystal Palace, was designed by
   Joseph Paxton (with support from structural engineer Charles Fox) to
   house the show; an architecturally adventurous building based on
   Paxton's experience designing greenhouses for the sixth Duke of
   Devonshire, constructed from cast iron-frame components and glass made
   almost exclusively in Birmingham and Smethwick, which was an enormous
   success. The committee overseeing its construction included Isambard
   Kingdom Brunel. The massive glass house was 1848 feet (about 563 m)
   long by 454 feet (about 138 m) wide, and went from plans to grand
   opening in just nine months. The building was later moved and
   re-erected in an enlarged form at Sydenham in south London, an area
   that was renamed Crystal Palace.

   Six million people – equivalent to a third of the entire population of
   Great Britain – visited the Exhibition. The Great Exhibition made a
   surplus of £186,000 which was used to found the Victoria and Albert
   Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum which were
   all built in the area to the south of the exhibition, nicknamed "
   Albertopolis", alongside the Imperial Institute.

   The exhibition caused 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 has
   become a symbol of the Victorian Age, and its thick catalogue
   illustrated with steel engravings is a primary source for High
   Victorian design.

Trivia

     * Alfred Charles Hobbs used the exhibition to demonstrate the
       inadequacy of several respected locks of the day.
     * Frederick Bakewell demonstrated a precursor to today's Fax machine.
     * The Tempest Prognosticator, a barometer using leeches, was
       demonstrated at the Great Exhibition
     * The America's Cup yachting event began with a race held in
       conjunction with the Great Exhibition.

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