The Great Exhibition and contemporary newspaper reports
The amount of literature about the The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations
is vast. Paxton’s design of the building attracted as much attention as the Exhibition
itself. This blog offers a brief glimpse of newspaper reports published during
the run-up to the exhibition, to its opening and description of its contents,
as contained within the British
Newspaper Archive (BNA). The Illustrated
London News led the way, with detailed descriptions of the plans for and
the construction of the Crystal Palace in the second half of 1850, and early in
1851. The magazine Punch also
provided many cartoons satirising the whole show, and particularly the leading role
of Prince Albert.
Articles in contemporary London and Provincial newspapers
are innumerable. A search for ‘Crystal Palace’ in the BNA, filtering on
the years 1850-1859 yields nearly 9,000 pages of results. For the year 1851
alone, the number of pages is 1,423. Placing ‘on’ the filter for illustrations,
one retrieves ten pages of results. Many newspapers created special
supplements, giving copious details of the forthcoming exhibits, and of the
building itself. As early as February 1851, the Reading Mercury sacrificed half of its normal front page of Advertisements, so that the ‘View of the Exterior [i.e. Interior] of the
Great Exhibition’ could be reproduced.
Reading Mercury - Saturday 08 February 1851 page 1
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.
The same illustration of the Interior was reproduced
in the Gloucester Journal of
Saturday, 22 February 1851, on page 5. The scene is entirely imaginary: the Exhibition
did not open until 1st May 1851. However, we see the throng of
people on the ground floor, and galleries are also well populated. The great
length of the building is conveyed by the semi-circular window in the distance, to
the west. The nature of the roof glazing is conveyed to the viewer, together with
the cast iron columns and cross supports, all of which were bolted together.
Gloucester Journal - Saturday 22 February 1851 page
5
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
The same illustration was reproduced over a month
later by the Sussex Advertiser, 11
March 1851.
Sussex Advertiser - Tuesday 11 March 1851 page 2
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.
Provincial newspapers were quick to
write accounts of the opening of the Exhibition of the 1 May 1851. On page 4 of
the Chelmsford Chronicle of the 2 May 1851, we see the Royal Procession; on page 2 of the same
issue, a headline: “The Great Exhibition” was supplemented with the by-line: “State
Opening by Her Majesty”. The language of the article seems somewhat self
important to us today.
Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 02 May 1851 page 4
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.
Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 02 May 1851 page 2
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.
Only a day later, on the
3 May, the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette published the same illustration as appeared in the Chelmsford Chronicle the day before, with
the caption: ‘The Royal Procession in the Crystal Palace’.
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Saturday 03 May 1851
page 4
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
The order of the Royal Procession, printed in
detail, shows how carefully regulated it was (this is still true today
for Royal ceremonies). Paxton, Henderson and Fox led the way, followed by the
Exhibition Commissioners, and then Queen Victoria’s ministers, and the Bishop
of London, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Saturday 03 May 1851
page 4
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.
On the 3 May, in its Supplement, the Bristol
Mirror and Times, printed a view of the exterior of the Crystal Palace. We can see much activity outside the façade of the building,
carriages arriving with their royal occupants, and conveying other dignitaries.
As the building was adjacent to Rotten Row, we see soldiers on horses and many people
who had assembled to watch the proceedings .
Bristol Times and Mirror - Saturday 03 May 1851
page 9
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.
Descriptions of the exhibits were many and varied.
On the 17 May, the Bristol Times printed a whole page on the Great Exhibition,
and Showed an Equestrian statue of the Queen. There was a description of this
statue further down the same page.
Bristol Times and Mirror - Saturday 17 May 1851
page 3
Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
You can obtain other images about the Great
Exhibition from many sources. One of the most sumptuous of contemporary publications
was Dickinson's ComprehensivePictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851. This was a series of brillinatly coloured chromolithographs. From these, you have a sense of almost being there
with the visitors, exploring the many displays of the Crystal Palace, seeing the array of colours and
strange objects, both inside and outside the building.
Finally, on October 11th, almost too soon, it was over. Over six million (6,039,195)
people had visited the Exhibition.
£75,557/15- had been spent on refreshments. The quantities of food
consumed was prodigious: 60,698 cottage loaves; 68,428 pound cakes; 934,691
bath buns; 1,046 gallons of pickles; 33 tons of hams; 33,432 quarts of milk;
1,092,337 bottles of Schweppes soda water, lemonade and ginger beer. Receipts
for the Exhibition amounted to £506,100. Expenditure was £292,794. The difference
was £213,305. For an enterprise not intended to make money, it proved very
successful at doing so. (This account is drawn from the First Report of the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851.) A very detailed account of what was done with the surplus funds is printed in the Survey of London: Volume 38, South Kensington Museums Area. 1975. Chapter 4. The Estate of theCommissioners for the Exhibition of 1851.
The Crystal Palace had to be taken down after the Great Exhibition ended. What happened next is equally well known, and the
events that led to the building of the Sydenham Crystal Palace in 1854, and the
newspaper reports that covered its genesis, will be described in another blog,
Edmund M B King
January 2015
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