Module 4: The Great Exhibition of 1851

This week's readings of Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 continued to pave the way forward towards graphic design history. Suddenly we are cast in the bustling era of the 19th century, a time of massive growth and technology advancement due to the historical Industrial Revolution. Civilians are no longer focusing on agricultural labor work, but rather, building innovations and mass-producing material objects in factories. This revolution brought a great leap of inventions and a dramatic transformation to peoples' former lifestyles. This revolution especially benefited the Victorian reign in England.

During the 1850s, there was a rise of innovation and high morale that could be represented by the term, "Victorian". This was the pride of the industrial era's spirit and cultural revival. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, proposed that there be a huge exhibition and collaborative effort of all the industrial inventions and aesthetic creations that had been put together during that time lapse. He quoted it as the "Great Exhibition of 1851", which worked as a summation of the Industrial Revolution's progress, and can be considered a point in time for future innovation.

This exhibition is often coined as the "Crystal Palace Exhibition", namely because of the impressive cast steel and glass architectural design that housed the event. The exhibition was a grandiose party of sorts, inviting the most celebrated of noteworthy figures, ranging from literary geniuses such as Lewis Carroll, to scientists such as Charles Darwin. This dream exhibition, considered by many as the first world fair, was an international meeting. England was economically booming during the Industrial Revolution, and during a time of peace, wanted to show off and display their success. People all over the world traveled to Britain for the event, with an estimated six million guests attending to get a glimpse of what was glamorously being exhibited.

The intention of the exhibition was to heighten the bar of industrial design. It was an opportune chance for other nations to share what they had created, and receive feedback and inspiration from the other nations. Also, it was to advertise products and create larger, more international, markets. Of course, there was always a leading nation (in this case, Britain, with their typographic printing presses), similarly to how Apple is a leader for technological gadgets, but every other company is watching and following up with products that are close to Apples' inventions.

Besides industrial inventions, there was a plethora of designs, ranging from illustration to mosaic, that were on display. There was an abundance of Victorian graphic design, which displayed and captured the morals and cultural values of that era. A noteworthy observation was that the majority of the mediums used for the graphic design works were through lithography.