ABSTRACT
This extract by Patrick Geddes particularly looks at the issue of taste and its improvement through the practical application of a theory of aesthetics demonstrated by exhibitions. Using the examples of food, fashion, and architecture, Geddes expressed a desire for manufacturers and organisers of exhibitions to guide public taste by means of suitable specimens and sensible displays so that informed criticism and comparisons may be made. Geddes’ ideas are also evident in his argument that exhibitions could be divided ‘either on the one line, as an extended shop window, music saloon, and refreshment bar of unparalleled lustre and magnificence. The political economist is tardily rising to a conception, which, it must be confessed, many practical men have grasped and acted on ever since the great Exhibition of 1851, viz., that art is no less of solid economic importance than are manufactures or exchange.
