The Great Exhibition of 1851

No single event represents Great Britain’s supremacy as an industrial nation more than the Great Exhibition of 1851. Prince Albert and a group of prominent businessmen convinced skeptical members of the government of the worthiness of the project, one that would highlight the industrial and technical developments of all participating nations. The effort to create a venue for the exhibition was immense. Joseph Paxton, the chief architect, had to prove that his modern and different design for the exhibition building would be substantial enough for the ambitious venture. It consisted of 2,300 cast iron girders, 3,300 pillars, and more than 900,000 feet of glass and resulted in a structure in Kensington Park that covered more than 19 acres or approximately three times the length of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. It took several thousand workers nine months to construct the edifice, with a skeletal framework of more than 202 miles to hold it together, its roof arching majestically over the trees of Hyde Park. Critics complained that it resembled an oversized greenhouse. In the end, the Great Exhibition, also dubbed the Crystal Palace Exhibition, was a huge financial success. The nearly 17,000 contributors set up more than 100,000 exhibits. Half of the exhibits came from Great Britain or its colonies. Many of the displays showed current British industrial expertise, although futuristic items such as an early submarine and a steam powered brewery attracted much attention. Charlotte Bronte, the British poet, upon observing the exhibition wrote, ‘‘Whatever human industry has created, you will find there.’’34 Six million visitors, approximately one-third of the population of Great Britain, arrived mostly by train to visit the exhibition during its 141-day showcase. The Queen herself visited the Crystal Palace on thirty occasions. The Great Exhibition served as a breath-taking, visible testimony to the ideal of progress and the genius of literally hundreds of inventors and entrepreneurs. The Great Exhibition netted a profit of 750,000 pounds from its ticket sales and concessions, an amount that provided enough money to purchase land in Kensington for additional museums. Following the conclusion of the Great Exhibition, the Crystal Palace was dismantled and moved to South London where it became a popular venue for a number of events until it burned down in 1936.35