Contextual Reference in Art and Design

The Great Exhibition

The Great Exhibition was an idea dreamt up by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, to display the wonders of industry and manufacturing from around the modern world a. The Great Exhibition was held in the Crystal Palace which was situated in Hyde Park in London and was opened on the 1st of May to the 15th of October. The Crystal palace was made of glass and iron columns.The Great Exhibition was the first international exhibition of manufactured products and was enormously influential on the development of many aspects of society including art and design education, international trade and relations, and even tourism. There were over 13,000 exhibits that were displayed from all around the world with some 100,000 objects displayed among more then ten miles and had over 15,000 contributors to the exhibition. Britain who was hosting the exhibition occupied half of the display space available inside the Crystal Palace. The exhibits consisted of a massive hydraulic press, a steam-hammer, adding machines, defensive umbrellas, A printing machine that could churn out 5,000 copies of the popular newspaper of the time Illustrated London News in an hour, carriages and saddlery, sculptures and furniture, fantastic jewels and diamonds. By the time The Great Exhibition had closed over six million people had visited the exhibitions.