Sculptuur van een dronken faun door John Hogan, tentoongesteld op de Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations van 1851 in Londen

The Great Exhibition, housed within the ‘Crystal Palace’, embodied Prince Albert’s vision to display the wonders of industry from around the world. Liza Picard looks at the exhibits, the building and the ideas behind the project. There were some 100,000 objects, displayed along more than 10 miles, by over 15,000 contributors. Britain, as host, occupied half the display space inside, with exhibits from the home country and the Empire. The biggest of all was the massive hydraulic press that had lifted the metal tubes of a bridge at Bangor invented by Stevenson. Each tube weighed 1,144 tons yet the press was operated by just one man. Next in size was a steam-hammer that could with equal accuracy forge the main bearing of a steamship or gently crack an egg. By the time the Exhibition closed, on 11 October, over six million people had gone through the turnstiles. Instead of the loss initially predicted, the Exhibition made a profit of £186,000, most of which was used to create the South Kensington museums.