Delving into the Library’s Collection, Sylvia Marchant discovers a diverse range of material on the first world trade exhibition
Thackeray, who had a wicked sense of humour, probably had his tongue very firmly in his cheek as he composed the above verse. Nevertheless it accurately reflects the pride and pleasure the Victorians took in the Crystal Palace, the fabled palace of glass erected in London’s Hyde Park over 150 years ago to house Prince Albert’s ambitious project The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations. This was the first international trade exhibition and it paved the way for all future International Expos. In all its aspects the 1851 Exhibition turned out to be a wonder of the modern world, a miracle of organisation which triumphed over hesitation, vacillation and hostility, to become a fitting symbol of the apex of the Victorian age. Held from 1 May to 15 October 1851 it exhibited a fabulous range of artefacts and innovations including such marvels as the Crystal Fountain made from four tonnes of pure crystal glass and standing approximately eight metres high, a collection of then fashionable and voluptuously vulgar pianos, a massive sideboard carved from a single oak, a giant 31.5-tonne steam locomotive, a steam hammer, which could forge the giant main beam of a steamship or gently crack an egg; agricultural implements, and a block of coal weighing 24.4 tonnes. There were tapestries from France, pearls, emeralds and rubies from India, lace from Belgium, wheat, sugar, tobacco and minerals from Australia, Canada and the West Indies. But the graceful statue of a naked Greek girl slave, and the magnificent Koh-i-Noor diamond, were the darlings of the crowds. Illustrations of all these wonders can be found in the National Library’s extensive collection of material on the Exhibition which includes an original copy of the third volume of the official catalogue. There is also a complete microform copy of the original enormous three volume catalogue which is astonishing in the amount of information about the enterprise—the building, the exhibitors and, most riveting, the incredible variety of exhibits. The Library’s collection clearly reflects the boldness, the confidence, and the sheer hubris of the Victorian age in Britain, which is at once daunting and inspiring. But it was the Crystal Palace itself which stole the show. The huge and glittering palace of glass, designed by ex-gardener Joseph Paxton and housing the wondrous products of the age, became a temple in which both the high priests and the slaves of the Industrial Revolution joined in reverent and joyful worship. The magical building was conceived in June 1850, the first iron column was fixed into place on 26 September, and the completed structure handed over to the organisers in January 1851. Between February 1851 and opening day, over 100 000 exhibits from 13 937 exhibitors from all over the world were channelled into their allotted places on the 10.5 hectares occupied by the Exhibition, of which 7.6 hectares were within the dazzling Crystal Palace itself. The huge complex opened its doors to 300 000 visitors on 1 May, just seven months later. The time scale of the ambitious enterprise is mind-boggling. From its inception in 1849 to opening day in May 1851, took less than two years and this before the days of motor transport, electric power and the modern technology now considered indispensable.
Adding to the legendary aspects of the amazing building that captivated a nation and half the world, is the fact that it came into existence almost by accident. In the early days of the project the question of a building to house the Exhibition was an obstacle that, for a while, threatened the whole enterprise. There were vigorous objections from local residents and other citizens to the idea of a building in Hyde Park at all, showing that the environmental movement is not such a modern phenomenon or perhaps it was more an example of the NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome. So it was agreed that the building would be temporary and removed from the park immediately after the Exhibition. With this proviso the design was put out to international competition but, as Charles Dickens, correctly forecast ‘the Committee dismissed all the 245 designs submitted, and set about designing its own.’ The Committee’s design was for a monstrous edifice with a cast-iron dome of hideous aspect, designed by the distinguished engineer Brunel, (whom one might have expected to know better). Predictably, it drew a storm of protest and ridicule, and the hapless Committee was galvanised into making a snap decision to proceed with Paxton’s idea when he came to their rescue with his ingenious and innovative design, even though it relied upon the largely untested technology of a glass and metal structure. Joseph Paxton was a self-made man who had risen from obscurity through his horticultural association with the Duke of Devonshire. He had experimented with glass houses for 20 years and his brilliant idea for the Palace was based on a large and successful conservatory he had built for the Duke. Paxton’s design was a triumph of ingenuity, organisation, industry, speed and beauty. The concept was the perfect solution to the problems of providing a temporary structure that provided light, heat, ventilation and drainage, in a practical and convenient way that not only served its purpose brilliantly but was truly a thing of beauty, though not alas, destined to be a joy forever. It combined flair with elegance in startling contrast to the many grotesqueries it housed and ultimately became the undisputed star of the Exhibition.
Perhaps the first important prefabricated building, the Palace was composed almost entirely of iron and glass with wood used only in the fittings and floorboards. The construction used 2300 cast-iron girders, 358 wrought-iron trusses to support the roof, 325 kilometres of sash bars supporting glass weighing more than 406 tonnes and 3230 hollow cast-iron columns which, as well as being the primary supporting infrastructure, served as water pipes to carry off rainwater from the 54.7 kilometres of guttering. The final structure was an impressive 563 metres long and 124 metres wide with a central transept 22 metres wide and rising to 32.9 metres, specially designed to enclose within the building a grove of tall elms that public opinion would not allow to be cut down. The structure covered over seven hectares of ground and enclosed 934 560 cubic metres of space while galleries added another two hectares to the floor area. But these prosaic details cannot convey the beauty of the building. Its appearance was by all accounts spectacular: vast yet pleasingly proportionate it sparkled and glittered in the sun from its myriad glass panes. Its place in history was assured when Douglas Jerrold, editor of Punch, in a stroke of genius, christened it the CRYSTAL PALACE. The Exhibition, in its splendid palace, was opened by Queen Victoria in a crowded and dazzling ceremony on 1 May 1851. The Palace was clearly a glorious spectacle on opening day, crowded with magnificently overdressed officers of state of all nations and ladies in enormous, colourful crinolines, all bathed in the effulgent, almost celestial, light admitted by the great transparent glass roof. The magnificent ceremony, accompanied by sonorous booms from the organ, choruses of hallelujahs from a choir of 600 voices, and an interminable prayer from the Archbishop of Canterbury, clearly indicated that the Deity was on the side of industrialisation, progress and expanding markets. It was a triumph from day one, and even detractors came to admit that the Exhibition was a huge success. ‘I never remember anything before that everyone was pleased with’ was one heartfelt remark. If opening day was a sensation the following weeks exceeded all expectations. Carried from the Midlands and the North by the newly inaugurated popular excursion trains and coastal steamers, visitors to the Exhibition came in numbers that first alarmed, then surprised and finally delighted the organisers. Men, women and children came, they came singly, they came in families, they came, in the end, in droves. On one day in October 109 915 people were admitted to the Exhibition.
Other statistics add to the legend of the Exhibition. It attracted no fewer than six million visitors during the 141 days it was open to the public—many from overseas; an incredible number considering a population much lower, and poorer, than today, and limited transport options—no international flights or coach tours! The Exhibition also achieved several other firsts, including the first public toilets—which brought in a substantial contribution of £1769 to the overall profit of £186 000—and it was the first, and possibly the last, to actually make a profit, part of which was used to provide London with a cultural and educational centre, including the famous Victoria and Albert Museum. The total value of the exhibits was estimated at about £2 million—not including the fantastic Koh-i-Noor (Mountain of Light) diamond, now part of the British crown jewels, and which was considered too difficult to value. The figures clearly show the Great Exhibition in its spectacular Palace was a resounding triumph. Not surprisingly, the phenomenal success encouraged international emulation and the rest of the world quickly followed suit. Australia’s first international trade exhibition opened in Sydney in 1879. It was housed in a specially constructed large and ornate building called the Garden Palace on land now included in the Botanic Gardens. Unhappily it was destroyed by fire in 1882. Melbourne’s exhibition opened in 1880 and its magnificent building still exists in Carlton Gardens and was used to stage the centenary re-enactment of the opening of the first Federal Parliament in May 2001. The Great Exhibition ended on an anticlimactic note because, according to the agreement, the uniquely beautiful Crystal Palace had to be dismantled and removed from Hyde Park. It was ignominiously transferred to a London suburb, redesigned and enlarged by Paxton, and used for public functions and other exhibitions. In a fate somehow befitting a fairy palace, it disappeared in a puff of smoke, or, more accurately, a spectacular fire, in 1936, but its magic lingers on in the many drawings, plans, reports and catalogues, though photographs are limited to black and white daguerreotypes and calotypes photographs, the most advanced form of photography at that time. The impact of the Exhibition and the Palace is convincingly conveyed in the range of the Library’s collection on the topic which includes modern and contemporary accounts suggesting that it exerts an eternal fascination. Apart from the catalogues already mentioned, the collection includes a historic children’s prize gift book of 1851, with an unashamedly moralising Victorian tone, a very technical analysis by Dionysius Lardner The Great Exhibition and London in 1851 (1852), which contrasts with Jeffrey Auerbach’s The Great Exhibition of 1851 (1999), an earnest and deeply serious analysis of the effects of the Exhibition and its legacies. Then there is the refreshingly gossipy approach by Christopher Hobhouse 1851 and the Crystal Palace (1937) who maliciously comments that Prince Albert, who instigated the whole thing, ‘never acquired any humour, any manners or any reticence’. John Tallis’s lavishly illustrated History and Description of the Crystal Palace (1852) is accompanied by a text that transports the reader into the culture and assumptions of Victorian society, while the purely scientific approach of Charles Babbage’s The Exposition of 1851 (1969), provides a different viewpoint. Apart from the catalogue itself, perhaps the most comprehensive and readable account is C.H. Gibbs-Smith’s The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Commemorative Album, published in 1950 and reprinted in 1981. This is abundantly illustrated and accompanied by an erudite and urbane text. This is just a small selection of the wealth of material available in the Library on this perpetually fascinating subject. Sylvia Marchant is a Canberra-based writer, historian and reviewer |
| Back to NLA News Index | Back to April Issue | Back to NLA Home Page |
To order a particular issue of
the NLA News e-mail nlasales@nla.gov.au
or join the Friends of the National
Library of Australia and receive a copy each month by mail.