The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display, and: The Great Exhibition, and: The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis (review)

Mid-Victorian Britain was bursting with pride; nevertheless, it was beset by many, many social problems. These three volumes are illustrative of both themes, and the tie which binds them is that of engineering and building. While they are accounts about complicated or extraordinary building schemes, they are much more than that. They show how huge projects worked for the betterment of society, both in a physical and psychological sense. While the undertakings of Sir Joseph Bazalgette unquestionably improved the condition of public health and relieved downtown London’s traffic congestion, the Great Exhibition of 1851 arguably provided a marvelous balm to both the London and British psyche. Beyond enhancement of London’s self-image, the Exhibition had the democratizing effect by thrusting diverse classes together and bequeathing a surplus which perpetuated its legacy in public museums. Whether these grand building enterprises accomplished their aesthetic goals is another matter. Certainly such arbiters of taste as John Ruskin and William Morris regarded the Crystal Palace a flop.

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851, which owed much to the initiatives of Henry Cole and the Royal Society of the Arts and to Prince Albert, was intended as a monument to industrial achievement. Both Auerbach and Davis contend that it was much more. That their diverse treatments of an identical subject, inclusive of overlap in information and even illustrations, should be published the same year is unusual and intriguing, to say the least.

Although their organization of the subject differs substantially, each author begins with a segment on “origins” or “roots”. In reality, Davis devotes much more space (three chapters and part of a fourth) to preparations for the Great Exhibition than does Auerbach. Unlike Auerbach, Davis delves into European fair antecedents, noting in particular those in nineteenth-century France and Germany. His chronicle of the Royal Commission’s undertaking and the politics involved, while illuminating, can be pretty tiresome stuff. Auerbach’s coverage of similar material, while less detailed, enlarges on the important 1840s issue of industrial education and places the Royal Society of the Arts in a larger context than Davis does. Auerbach’s recounting of the Royal Commission’s trials (chapter entitled “Obstacles”) is a more successful articulation of the political squabbles engulfing the Commission than Davis’s unstructured narrative. On the other hand, Davis treats Palace construction methods, replete with excellent illustrations, more effectively than does Auerbach.

Davis’ chapter “Setting Up Shop”, while informative, is quite a mix. In incorporates the role of Albert, the manner in which tickets were handled, the catalogue, exhibits and their themes, foreign exhibits, worries about revolutionaries, and much else. Again, Auerbach deals with much of this (and more) but in a more systematic fashion. In his section “Organization” he recounts the Commission’s drumming up support for the Exhibit through subscriptions (which Davis buries in an earlier chapter) and by going to the English counties, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Like Davis, he effectively represents Albert’s positive role in exhibition planning; beyond that, he provides a clearer picture than Davis of the free trade and protectionist responses to the whole enterprise.

In his “Great Exhibit Experience” Davis walks the reader through the Exhibition—its layout, the catalogue, good photographs to support the text, a commentary on those who attended, and much else. As good as it is, this section again falls short of Auerbach’s coverage of the far- ranging discussion of the Exhibition itself. The most sophisticated and fascinating segment of Auerbach, in this respect, consists of three chapters under the rubric of “Meaning”. The first, “Commerce and Culture”, speaks to such mundane matters as exhibit contents and their classifications, the raw materials, machinery, and the manufactures—each nicely buttressed by charts and numerous colored illustrations; more complex themes like the Commercialization of the Crystal Palace and Construction of an Industrialized Society complete it. While aspects of this chapter are paralleled in Davis’ “The Exhibit...