The Great Exhibition 1851

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The Great Exhibition of 1851 The Great Exhibition of 1851 was very significant in showcasing England’s domestic and international standing. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London and was a triumph of Victorian ingenuity that served as a showcase for the amazing inventions of the time, which is still an extremely impressive achievement over 160 years later. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, had come up with the idea in the late 1840s of creating the biggest exhibition in history to display a range of Victorian inventions and art from across the world. There had been a French exhibition in 1844 and it was clear that Prince Albert wanted his to be much grander and much more spectacular than theirs, with the aim for "Great Britain to make clear to the world its role as industrial leader”. Even though it was set up to show the world how wonderful British technology and inventions were at the time, and was in London, where Queen Victoria ruled from, many other countries from around the British Empire were given their own sections with the name of their country above it to share between their own artists and inventors, providing a total of 15,000 different exhibitors. Of course, as you would expect, Britain had the largest amount of space, taking up over half of the exhibition area. The Crystal Palace measured 564 metres by 138 metres and was constructed from thousands panes of glass. After the exhibition, it was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham in south London, where it was extended. This area of London is now known as Crystal Palace. The exhibition was opened on 1st May 1951 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with over 100,000 items of art and inventions on display. People bought expensive tickets to see the opening ceremony in the same way that people buy tickets for the Olympic opening ceremony today

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