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Coordinates: 51°30′11″N 0°10′12″W

Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All
Nations an international exhibition, took place in Hyde Park,
London, from 1 May to 15 October 1851. It was the first in a
series of World's Fairs, exhibitions of culture and industry that
became popular in the 19th century. The Great Exhibition was
organised by Henry Cole and by Prince Albert, husband of the
reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria.
Famous people of the time attended, including Charles Darwin,
Samuel Colt, members of the Orléanist Royal Family
and the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis
Carroll, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson and William Makepeace
Thackeray.

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 Great Exhibition of the Works of
Industry of All Nations
Building The Crystal Palace
Area 10.4 ha (26 acres)
Invention(s) telegraph, vulcanised rubber
Visitors 6,039,722
Participant(s)
Countries 25
Location
Country United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland
The Great Exhibition 1851 City London

Overview Venue Hyde Park

BIE-class Universal exposition Coordinates 51°30′11″N 0°10′12″W
Category Historical Expo
Timeline
Name Great Exhibition of the Works of
Opening 1 May 1851
Industry of All Nations
Closure 15 October 1851
Universal expositions
Next Exposition Universelle in Paris
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Background

The
Exposition des produits de l'industrie françai
se
(Exhibition of Products of French Industry)
organised in Paris, France, from 1798 to
1849 were precursors to the Great Exhibition
of 1851 in London.

The Great Exhibition of the Works of

Industry of All Nations was organised by
Prince Albert, Henry Cole, Francis Henry,
George Wallis, Charles Dilke
and other members of the
Royal Society for the
Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Co
mmerce
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could display their achievements, Britain sought to prove its own superiority. The
British exhibits at the Great Exhibition "held the lead in almost every field where
strength, durability, utility and quality were concerned, whether in iron and steel,
machinery or textiles."[2] Britain also sought to provide the world with the hope
of a better future. Europe had just struggled through "two difficult decades of
political and social upheaval," and now Britain hoped to show that technology,
particularly its own, was the key to a better future.[1] The Crystal Palace in Hyde
Park, London, in 1851
Sophie Forgan says of the Exhibition that "Large, piled-up 'trophy' exhibits in the
central avenue revealed the organisers' priorities; they generally put art or
colonial raw materials in the most prestigious place. Technology and moving
machinery were popular, especially working exhibits." She also notes that visitors
"could watch the entire process of cotton production from spinning to finished
cloth. Scientific instruments were found in class X, and electric
included telegraphs, microscopes,air pumps and
barometers, as wellas horological and surgical musical,
A special building,
instruments." [3] nicknamed The Crystal Palace, or "The Great Shalimar",[4] was
built to house the show. It was designed by Joseph Paxton with support from
structural engineer Charles Fox, the committee overseeing its construction Queen Victoria opens the Great
including Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and went from its organisation to the grand Exhibition in The Crystal Palace
opening in just nine months. The building was architecturally adventurous, in Hyde Park, London, in 1851
drawing on Paxton's experience designing greenhouses for the sixth Duke of

Devonshire. It took the form of a massive glass house, 1848 feet long by 454 feet wide (about 563 metres by 138 metres) and
was constructed from cast iron-frame components and glass made almost exclusively in Birmingham[5] and Smethwick.
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From the interior, the building's large size was emphasized with trees and statues;
this served, not only to add beauty to the spectacle, but also to demonstrate
man's triumph over nature.[1] The Crystal Palace was an enormous success,
considered an architectural marvel, but also an engineering triumph that showed
the importance of the Exhibition itself.[2] The building was later moved and re-
erected in 1854 in enlarged form at Sydenham Hill in south London, an area that
was renamed Crystal Palace. It was destroyed by fire on 30 November 1936.[4]
The enormous Crystal Palace
Six million people—equivalent to a third of the entire population of Britain at the
went from plans to grand opening
time—visited the Great Exhibition. The average daily attendance was 42,831 with
in just nine months
a peak attendance of 109,915 on 7 October.[6] The event made a surplus of
£186,000 (£18,370,000 in 2015),[7], which was used to found the Victoria and
Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. They
were all built in the area to the south of the exhibition, nicknamed Albertopolis,
alongside the Imperial Institute. The remaining surplus was used to set up an
educational trust to provide grants and scholarships for industrial research; it
continues to do so today.[8]

The Exhibition caused controversy as its opening approached. Some

conservatives feared that the mass of visitors might become a revolutionary mob,
[9] Exhibition interior
whilst radicals such as Karl Marx saw the exhibition as an emblem of a
capitalist fetishism of commodities. The English-born King Ernest Augustus I of
Hanover, shortly before his death, wrote to Lord Strangford about it:

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The folly and absurdity of the Queen in allowing this trumpery

must strike every sensible and well-thinking mind, and I am
astonished the ministers themselves do not insist on her at least
going to Osborne during the Exhibition, as no human being can
possibly answer for what may occur on the occasion. The idea ...
must shock every honest and well-meaning Englishman. But it
seems everything is conspiring to lower us in the eyes of Europe.[10]

In modern times, the Great Exhibition is a symbol of the Victorian Age, and its The front door of the Great
Exhibition
thick catalogue, illustrated with steel engravings, is a primary source for High
Victorian design.[11] A memorial to the exhibition, crowned with a statue of
Prince Albert, is located behind the Royal Albert Hall.[12]
It is inscribed with statistics from the exhibition, including the number of visitors
and exhibitors (British and foreign), and the profit made.

Paxton's Crystal Palace

enclosed full-grown trees in
Hyde Park

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1851 medal The Crystal Palace in 1851 medal The Crystal Palace in
London by Allen & Moore, obverse London by Allen & Moore, reverse

Exhibits
The official descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the event lists exhibitors not only from throughout Britain but also from
its 'Colonies and Dependencies' and 44 'Foreign States' in Europe and the Americas. Numbering 13,000 in total, the exhibits
included a Jacquard loom, an envelope machine, kitchen appliances, steel-making displays and a reaping machine that was
sent from the United States.[13]

The Mintons stand exhibited ceramics including majolica which proved a world-wide success.
The Koh-i-Noor, meaning the "Mountain of Light," the world's largest known diamond in 1851, was one of the
most popular attractions of the India exhibit and was acquired in 1850 as part of the Lahore Treaty.
The Daria-i-Noor, one of the rarest pale pink diamonds in the world, was shown.
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The early 8th-century Tara Brooch, discovered only in 1850, the finest Irish penannular brooch, was exhibited by the
Dublin jeweller George Waterhouse along with a display of his fashionable Celtic Revival jewellery.
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.
Mathew Brady was awarded a medal for his daguerreotypes.
William Chamberlin, Jr. of Sussex exhibited what may have been the world's first voting machine, which counted
votes automatically and employed an interlocking system to prevent over-voting.[14]
The first modern pay toilets were installed, with 827,280 visitors paying the 1 penny fee to use them. The toilets
remained even after the exhibition was dismantled. "Spending a penny" became a euphemism for using a toilet.[15]
Firearms manufacturer Samuel Colt demonstrated his prototype for the 1851 Colt Navy and also his older Walker
and Dragoon revolvers.
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.
Gold ornaments and silver enamelled handicrafts fabricated by the Sunar caste from Sind, British
India.
C.C. Hornung of Copenhagen, Denmark, showed his single-cast iron frame for a piano, the first
made in Europe.
"The Trophy Telescope", so called because it was considered the "trophy" of the exhibition, was shown.[16] Its main lens
of 11 inches (280mm) aperture and 16 feet (4.9m) focal length was manufactured by Ross of London. The German
equatorial mounting was made by Ransome & May of Ipswich.
The instrument maker J. S. Marratt exhibited a five-foot achromatic telescope and a transit theodolite used in
surveying, tunnelling, and for astronomical purposes.
Asprey exhibited a kingwood and ormolu mounted lady's dressing case with silver-gilt contents bearing the
'Annie' cipher.
Admission fees
Admission prices to the Crystal Palace varied according to the date of visit, with ticket prices decreasing as the parliamentary
season drew to an end and London traditionally emptied of wealthy individuals. Prices varied from three guineas (£311.05 in
2015)[7] (two guineas for a woman) for a season ticket, or £1 per day (for the first two days only), then reducing to five
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shillings per day (until May 22).[17] The admission price was then further reduced to one shilling (£4.94 in 2015),[7] per day –
except on Fridays, when it was set at two shillings and six pence and on Saturdays when it remained at five shillings.[17] The
one-shilling ticket proved most successful amongst the industrial classes, with four and a half million shillings (£22,217,549
in 2015),[7] being taken from attendees in this manner.[18] Two thousand five hundred tickets were printed for the opening
day, all of which were bought.[9]

Stereoscopic views
The Great Exhibition of 1851 encouraged the production of souvenirs. Several manufacturers produced stereoscope cards
which provided a three-dimensional view of the Exhibition. These paper souvenirs were printed lithographic cards which
were hand-coloured and held together by cloth to give a three-dimensional view of the Great Exhibition. They offered a
miniature view of the Crystal Palace Exhibition when one viewed the cards through the peep holes on the front cover.
Visitors purchased these souvenirs so that they could relive the experience of going to the exhibition.[19]

See also
List of world's fairs
1862 International Exhibition, held in London.
Festival of Britain
Great Exhibition Bay
Prince Albert's Model Cottage

References
1. Kishlansky, Mark, Patrick Geary and Patricia O'Brien. Civilization in the West.
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7th Edition. Vol. C. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2008.

2. Ffrench, Yvonne. The Great Exhibition; 1851. London: Harvill Press, 1950.
3. Forgan, Sophie (10 February 2000), "A compendium of Victorian culture",
Nature, 403 (6880): 596, Bibcode:2000Natur.403..596F
(https://ui.adsabs.har vard.edu/abs/2000Natur.403..596F), doi:
10.1038/35001134 (https://doi.org/1 0.1038%2F35001134)
4. "The Great Exhibition of 1851"
(http://dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/the-gre at-exhibition-of-1851). Duke
Magazine. November 2006. Retrieved 30 July 2007.
5. James Harrison, ed. (1996). "Imperial Britain". Children's Encyclopedia of
British History. London: Kingfisher Publications. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-
7534- 0299-3.
6. Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year:
1862
(https://archive.org/stream/1862appletonsan02newyuoft#page/n419/mo
de/1up). New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 412.
7. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark,
Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average
Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" Lane's Telescopic View The
(https://measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/). MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 27 Ceremony of Her Majesty
January 2019. Opening the Great Exhibition
8. The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. "About Us" Inside view grand opening by
(http://www.roy alcommission1851.org.uk/about.html). Queen Victoria
Retrieved 1 November 2008.
9. Newth, A.M. (1967). Britain and the World: 1789-1901. New York: Penguin
Books. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-14-080304-4.
10. Van der Kiste 2004, pp. 206–207.
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Wikipedia

11. Official Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All
Nations
(https://www.google.com/books?id=OfMHAAAAQAAJ&source=gbs_
summary_s&cad=0). 1851.
12. "Memorial to the exhibition"
(http://preview-riba.contensis.com/LibraryDrawin
gsAndPhotographs/Albertopolis/TheStoryOf/GreatExhibition/MemorialToThe

Exhibition.aspx). Royal Institute of British Architects. Retrieved 18 October

2014.
13. "The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace"
(http://www.victorianstation.com/ palace.html) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20091216045749/http://vi
ctorianstation.com/palace.html) 2009-12-16 at the Wayback Machine.
Victorian Station. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
14. "The Great Exhibition," Manchester Times, 24 May 1851.
15. "Spending a Penny for the Monkey Closet"
(https://findery.com/californiawillia
m/notes/spending-a-penny-for-the-monkey-closet).
16. Smyth, C. P. (1862). "Trophy Telescope at Wester Elchies". Monthly Notices
of the Royal Astronomical Society. 23: 1. Bibcode:1862MNRAS..23....1S
(htt ps://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1862MNRAS..23....1S). doi:
10.1093/mnras/23.1.1 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fmnras%2F23.1.1).
17. Leapman, Michael (2001). The World For A Shilling. p. 72.
18. "Entrance Costs to the Great Exhibition"
(http://www.fashion-era.com/the_gre
at_exhibition.htm#Entrance%20Costs%20To%20The%20Great%20Exhibitio
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Further reading
Auerbach, Jeffrey A. (1999). The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-
08007-0.
Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard (1981) [1951]. The Great Exhibition of 1851 (Second ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 978-
0- 11-290344-4.
Greenhalgh, Paul (1988). Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions and World's Fairs,
1851– 1939. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-2299-9.
Leapman, Michael (2001). The World for a Shilling: How the Great Exhibition of 1851 Shaped a Nation. Headline
Books. ISBN 978-0-7472-7012-6.
Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Dickinson Brothers. London. 1854.

External links
Official website of the BIE (http://www.bie-paris.org/site/en/1851-london)
1851 map (http://london1851.com/cross10.htm) Map of London showing the site of the Great Exhibition in Hyde
Park. MAPCO
"Memorials of the Great Exhibition" (cartoon) (http://john-leech-archive.org.uk/keyword/great-exhibition.htm)
Cartoon series from Punch magazine
Charlotte Bronte's account of a visit to the Great Exhibition
(http://www.mytimemachine.co.uk/?p=74) mytimemachine.co.uk
"Great Exhibition of 1851 and its legacy"
(http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Albertopolis/The
StoryOf/GreatExhibition/TheGreatExhibitionof1851.aspx). Architecture and history. Royal Institute of British Architects.
Retrieved 14 December 2010.
Great Exhibition Collection in the National Art Library
(http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/n/national-art-library-great-e xhibition-collection) Victoria and Albert Museum
"In Our Time" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20060427.shtml) BBC radio programme
discussing the Great Exhibition and its impact. Originally broadcast 27 Apr 2006
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Royal Engineers Museum (http://www.remuseum.org.uk/corpshistory/rem_corps_part12.htm#exhibition) Royal

Engineers and the Great Exhibition
"Watercolours of the Great Exhibition"
(https://web.archive.org/web/20140814033429/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articl es/w/watercolours-of-great-
exhibition/). Paintings and Drawings. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 13 November 2007.
1851 London (BIE World Expo) (http://www.studylove.org/worldsfairs21.html#1851) - approximately 190 links
Fair Enough: The London Great Exhibition, 1851 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfwtwlfwvaU) - YouTube,
documentary, 1h03m41s
The Great Exhibition 1851, Presented by David de Haan (YouTube, documentary):

Part 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzvHv9CmdKQ) - 25m26s

Part 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sDj8VquIQY) - 22m01s
The Great Exhibition of 1851: Industrialization and the Emergence of the Modern World
(http://archive.org/details/William IrwinThompsonB7) - audio, lecture, 38m21s, at Internet Archive
Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (http://archive.org/details/Dickinsonscompr1)
- book, 230pp, at Internet Archive
Guide-Book to the Industrial Exhibition (http://archive.org/details/guidebooktoindu00goog) - book, 175pp, at
Internet Archive
The Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue: The Industry of All Nations, 1851
(http://archive.org/details/artjournalillust00bradric h/page/n7) - book, 432pp, at Internet Archive
The American Exhibit at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/52365) - video,
illustrated lecture, 33m59s, at Georgia Tech Library
Berlioz at the 1851 Exhibition (http://www.hberlioz.com/London/BL1851Exhibition.html) - article with pictures, at The
Hector Berlioz Website
Glimpses and Gatherings During a Voyage and Visit to London and the Great Exhibition in the Summer of 1851
(http://ar chive.org/details/glimpsesandgath00drewgoog/page/n6) - book, 404pp, at Internet Archive
Art and Faith, in Fragments from the Great Exhibition (http://archive.org/details/artfaithinfragme00trou/page/n3) -
book, 354pp, at Internet Archive
The Great Exhibition: "Wot is To Be" (1850) (http://archive.org/details/greatexhibition00sala/page/n1) - booklet, 20pp, at
Internet Archive
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