Geoffrey Cantor - The Great Exhibition Vol 1: A Documentary History

Standing at the mid-point of the nineteenth century, the Great Exhibition of the Works of All Nations was one of the most prominent public events of the Victorian period. The brainchild of Henry Cole,1 a prominent member of the Society of Arts, and the personal project of Prince Albert,2 the Prince Consort, it was an impressive and unique achievement in terms of scale. The building Joseph Paxtons3 innovative glass and iron Crystal Palace was an immense structure measuring 1,848 feet (563m) in length and 408 feet (124m) in width, and incorporating 300,000 panes of glass. It covered the space of about ten football pitches. Over 15,000 displays, divided into thirty classes (see Appendix 1, pp. xxi-ii, for the scope of each of the thirty classes of exhibits), were submitted by exhibitors recruited from Britain, from the colonies (as they were called) and from foreign states, ranging from Bavaria to Bolivia and from France to the United States. The value of the exhibits (excluding the Koh-i-noor diamond, itself valued at 2,000,000) was estimated at nearly 1,800,000, which translates in modern terms to about 150,000,000. During the 141 days when the Exhibition was open to the public, 6 million visitors passed through its turnstiles, with a staggering maximum of 109,915 on a single day. These visitors paid over 424,000 in entry charges and consumed 934,691 bath buns, while over a million bottles of non-alcoholic beverages and an unrecorded quantity of water were drunk from the several fountains inside the Crystal Palace. During the summer months of 1851 it was widely proclaimed the eighth wonder of the world.

Although the above statistics by themselves are astonishing, they are of limited assistance in appreciating the historical significance of the Great Exhibition of 1851. One highly influential account of that history was constructed by the Exhibition organizers themselves and was published in several versions, including Henry Coles Introduction to the Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue (hereafter ODIC), which is reproduced below, pp. 21150. Emphasizing the importance of commercial activity and the suitability of London to host the Exhibition, Cole traced its history, stemming from the well-established tradition of holding fairs and exhibitions displaying works of industry. He identified the Society of Arts4 as having played a seminal role over the previous century in holding competitions and awarding premiums to innovative artisans. More specifically, the success of exhibitions held in Paris in 1844 and 1849 encouraged members of the Society of Arts to press for a similar national exhibition in Britain. In 1847 the Society had initiated a series of annual exhibitions of more limited scope and had also lobbied for a far more extensive industrial exhibition in 1851.5 In the summer of 1849 Prince Albert took the subject under his own personal supervision. Working closely with the Society of Arts, and especially with Cole himself, Albert rapidly advanced plans for a major international exhibition to be held in London in 1851. In the autumn of 1849 soundings were taken across the country to gauge public support for the proposal, financial contributions were sought, and a contract was drafted between the Society of Arts and a building contractor, Messrs Munday. In order to encourage manufacturers to exhibit their products, substantial prizes and medals were to be offered to the winners in various categories.