Genre:

Essay

Relevant illustrations:

eng.

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Industry, Progress, Technology, Telegraphy, Photography, Museums, Commerce

    According to its commissioners, the International Exhibition in 1862 will display only 'works of industry [...] produced since 1850'. Cole declares that it will therefore 'be one showing the progress made during the last ten years [...] —an exhibition of progress'. (95) The Lancashire mill towns, he notes, have shown 'no interest to exhibit'; but, 'if cotton machinery and cotton manufactures have no progress to show during the last ten years, or have no desire to show it—let cotton be absent from the Exhibition, and let electric telegraphs and photography [...] take its space'. He also contrasts the arrangement of museums, where classification is 'scientifically correct', with the 'commercially or practically convenient' arrangement of 'an Exhibition, which, after all, is a real trade show'. (96)