ABSTRACT
If in retrospect the Great Exhibition aroused fond memories, at the time it evoked extravagant certainties. For many, it awakened a passionate national pride sufficient either to obliterate temporarily the host of social and political problems that had surfaced in the 1840s or, more positively, to pronounce them solved (Billinge, 1993, 103). Those holding such views construed the Great Exhibition as, among other things, a triumph for the British realm, the monarchy (through the involvement of Prince Albert), Protestantism, national genius and democracy. The nation, the argument ran, had taken upon itself the task of rewarding publicly ‘the meritorious sons of each individual nation’ for their industrious creativity (Berlyn, 1851, 8-9). This reflected the country’s standing in the world. Britain ‘stood erect in hale composure’ while all around had just experienced a ‘frightful series of convulsions’ (Anon., 1851). There might well be worries about the visitor seeing the capital’s seamier side (Cumming, 1851), but Britain alone could offer itself on display as a secure and tranquil gathering place for the world’s progressive industrialism. The transparency of the exhibition pavilion, the so-called ‘Crystal Palace’, seemed a metaphor for the obstructionless free trade that would guarantee this new era of peace (Buzard, 1999, 438).
