Crystal Palace. The Great Exhibition of 1851. The London World Exposition 1851:: The Great Exhibition. Interior view of The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, 1851 The Crystal Palace Exterior view of the Crystal Palace, 1851 If you took an omnibus along London's Knightsbridge in the summer of 1851, you would see an astonishing sight. Glittering among the trees was a palace made of glass, like something out of the Arabian Nights. It was as tall as the trees, indeed taller, because the building arched over two of them already growing there, as if, like giant plants in a glasshouse, they had been transplanted with no disturbance to their roots. A shower of rain washed the dust from the glass, and made it glitter all the more. This was the ‘Crystal Palace’, home to the Great Exhibition, an idea dreamt up by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, to display the wonders of industry and manufacturing from around the modern world.
The exhibits Colour illustration of The Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace, 1851 Printing machine for the Illustrated London News, 1851 The interior of the building. Victorian Novel, 1851-67 - Visual Materials - Crystal Palace. The Great Exhibition, 1851. The Great Exhibition. The enormous Crystal Palace went from plans to grand opening in just nine months. Exhibition interior The front door of the Great Exhibition Paxton's Crystal Palace enclosed full-grown trees in Hyde Park. The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations or The Great Exhibition, sometimes referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 11 October 1851.
It was the first in a series of World's Fair exhibitions of culture and industry that were to become a popular 19th-century feature. The Great Exhibition was organized by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, husband of the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. Background[edit] Forgan says of the Exhibition that[3] "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. Exhibits[edit]