The Great Exhibition: Paxton's "Crystal Palace" enclosed full-grown trees in Hyde Park.

The Great Exhibition, also known as the Crystal Palace Exhibition, was an international exhibition held in Hyde Park London, from 1 May to 15 October 1851 and the first in a series of World's Fair exhibitions of culture and industry that were to be a popular 19th century feature. Image File history File links GtExhib1851. ... Image File history File links GtExhib1851. ... Sir Joseph Paxton (1803–1865) was an English gardener and architect of The Crystal Palace. ... Exhibition is a word with several meanings. ... The Sexpentine, viewed from the eastern end. ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in Leap years). ... 1851 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... A Worlds Fair is any of various large expositions held since the mid 19th century. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Culture The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations was organised by Prince Albert and Henry Cole as a celebration of modern industrial technology and design. It can be argued that the Great Exhibition was mounted in response to the highly successful French exhibition of 1844, the French Industrial Exposition of 1844. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, was an enthusiastic promoter of a self-financing exhibition; the government was persuaded to form the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to establish the viability of hosting such an exhibition. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel, of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha branch of the House of Wettin) (26 August 1819 - 14 December 1861) was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... Sir Henry Cole (15 July 1808 (Bath) - 18 April 1882 (London)) was a civil servant who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century Britain. ... Modern can simply mean something that is up-to-date, trendy, new, or from the present time. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Usually considered in the context of the applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other such creative endeavours, design is used as both a noun and a verb. ... 1844 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The French Industrial Exposition of 1844, held in a temporary structure on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, was one in a series of eleven French national industrial expositions held to encourage improvements in progressive agriculture and in technology, that had their origins in 1798. ... Victoria Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) (24 May 1819–22 January 1901) was a Queen of the United Kingdom, reigning from 20 June 1837 until her death. ... Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is an institution founded in 1850 to administer the international exhibition of 1851, officially called the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, held in The Crystal Palace. ...

A special building, nicknamed The Crystal Palace, was designed by Joseph Paxton (with support from civil engineer William Henry Barlow) to house the show; an architecturally adventurous building based on Paxton's experience designing greenhouses for the sixth Duke of Devonshire, constructed from cast iron-frame components and glass made almost exclusively in Birmingham and Smethwick, which was an enormous success. The committee overseeing its construction included Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The massive glass house was 1848 feet (about 563 m) long by 454 feet (about 138 m) wide, and went from plans to grand opening in just nine months. The building was later moved and reerected in an enlarged form at Sydenham in south London, an area that was renamed Crystal Palace. The facade of the original Crystal Palace side view of the Crystal Palace A huge iron and glass building, The Crystal Palace was one of the wonders of 19th Century Britain, if not the world. ... Sir Joseph Paxton (1803–1865) was an English gardener and architect of The Crystal Palace. ... The term civil engineer refers to an individual who practices civil engineering. ... William Henry Barlow (1812-1902) was an English civil engineer of the 19th century, particularly associated with railway engineering projects. ... Architecture (classical [[Greek ) is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. ... A greenhouse in Saint Paul, Minnesota. ... William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790 - 1858), was known as the Bachelor Duke. In 1811, at the age of 21, he inherited eight stately homes and 200,000 acres (809 km²) of land. ... Cast iron usually refers to grey cast iron, but can mean any of a group of iron-based alloys containing more than 2% carbon (alloys with less carbon are carbon steel by definition). ... This article refers to the material. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... Map sources for Smethwick at grid reference SP0287 Smethwick (pronounced Smethick) is a town adjacent to Birmingham and West Bromwich in England. ... Brunel before the launching of the Great Eastern Isambard Kingdom Brunel (April 9, 1806 – September 15, 1859), FRS was a British engineer. ... For other uses of the name Sydenham, see Sydenham (disambiguation). ... Crystal Palace or Upper Norwood is an area in south London, England within the postcode London SE19, named after the Crystal Palace, relocated to Upper Norwood in 1854. ...

The Great Exhibition made a surplus of £186,000 which was used to found the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum which were all built in the area to the south of the exhibition, nicknamed "Albertopolis", alongside the Imperial Institute. The Cromwell Road entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum viewed from Thurloe Square The main interior courtyard of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2004. ... Science Museum The Science Museum on Exhibition Road, Kensington, London, is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. ... The Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, has an ornate terracotta facade typical of high Victorian architecture. ... Albertopolis is a nickname for the area in South Kensington, London, between Cromwell Road and Kensington Gore, which contains several educational and cultural sites, including Imperial College Natural History Museum Royal Albert Hall Royal College of Art Royal College of Music Royal College of Organists Royal Geographical Society Science Museum... Imperial College is one of the colleges of the University of London (although negotiations with regard to its withdrawal from the University have begun) and primarily focuses on science, engineering and medicine, complemented by a business school. ...

The exhibition caused controversy at the time. Some conservatives feared that the mass of visitors might become a revolutionary mob, while radicals such as Karl Marx saw the exhibition as an emblem of the capitalist fetishism of commodities. Today the 'Great Exhibition' has become a symbol of the Victorian Age, and its thick catalogue illustrated with steel engravings is a primary source for High Victorian design. Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London) was an influential philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary organizer of the International Workingmens Association. ... An emblem consists of a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept - often a concept of a moral truth or an allegory. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... A fetish (from French fétiche; from Portuguese feitiço; from Latin facticius, artificial and facere, to make) is a natural object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular an object created by people that has power over people. ... The word commodity has a different meaning in business than in Marxian political economy. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, June 20, 1837) gave her name to the historic era. ...

Alfred Charles Hobbs used the exhibition to demonstrate the inadequacy of several respected locks of the day. Alfred Charles Hobbs (? - died 1891) was a famous American lockpicker. ... Padlock A lock is a mechanical fastening device which may be used on a door, vehicle, or container. ...

The America's Cup yachting event began with a race held in conjunction with the Great Exhibition. The Americas Cup (originally the 100 Guineas Cup) is is the most famous and most prestigious competition in the sport of yachting, and the oldest active trophy in international sports, predating the FA Cup by two decades and the Modern Olympics by 45 years. ...

See also

• List of world's fairs

This is a list of worlds fairs (with notable permanent buildings built). ...

Further reading

• Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard The Great Exhibition of 1851, 2nd edition, London: HMSO, 1981.

• Greenhalgh, Paul Ephemeral vistas: the expositions universelles, great exhibitions and world's fairs, 1851-1939, Manchester University Press, 1988

External links

• Prince Albert's speech of 1849, announcing "The Exhibition of 1851"
• "Memorials of the Great Exhibition" Cartoon Series from Punch