Entries were by no means limited to the decorative arts. Engineering, raw materials, and scientific instruments were all well represented. There were many electrical applications, although there was as yet little understanding of their potential except in the case of the electric telegraph. A large area was given over to machinery, some of it powered by the Exhibition's own steam engines. The United States scored a major win with McCormick's reaper, cutting an astounding twenty acres in a day.
John Tallis, 1815 or 1816-1876: History and description of the Crystal Palace, and the Exhibition of the World's Industry in 1851; illustrated by beautiful steel engravings, from original drawings and daguerreotypes, by Beard, Mayall, etc., etc. London and New York, John Tallis and Co. [1852]
KSRL; Gift of the Jeffrey E. and Ford A. Rockwell Memorial Library Fund
Mayall was responsible for many of the best-known portraits of the Queen and the Royal Family. The Illustrated London News for April 12, 1851, mentions that "Messrs. Beard have executed a large Daguerréotype [sic] of the Exhibition Building, taken from the gallery at the east end, looking up the central avenue; and showing the scientific construction of the roof with wonderful minuteness." The use of a photographic view eliminated the original drawing, but it would be another thirty years before the image could be translated to the page without the aid of an engraver.
Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851: Official catalogue . . . . 3rd corrected and improved edition, 1st August, 1851. London, Spicer Brothers, wholesale stationers; W. Clowes & Sons, printers; contractors to the Royal commission, 1851 Price 1s. in the Building, Hyde Park.
Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851: A popular guide to the Great Exhibition . . . . London, Spicer Brothers, wholesale stationers; W. Clowes & Sons, printers; contractors to the Royal commission, 1851 Price twopence.
Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, 1851: Key to the Official catalogue. By which the Visitor will be enabled at once to discover the description of each article in the Catalogue in whatever part of the Building it may be placed. London, Spicer Brothers, wholesale stationers; W. Clowes & Sons, printers; contractors to the Royal commission, 1851 Price One Penny.
Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851: Official descriptive and illustrated catalogue. London, Spicer Brothers, 1851.
KSRL: D773
The illustration from the industrial section shows Crampton's Patent Express Engine, manufactured for the London and North Western Railway Company.
Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, 1851: Reports by the Juries on the subjects in the thirty classes into which the Exhibition was divided. London, W. Clowes, 1852.
KSRL: 19/20 DE 69 Presentation copy
The Art Journal illustrated catalogue. The industry of all nations 1851. London, George Virtue, 1851.
KSRL
Examples of Victorian design viewed en masse overwhelm. The Art Journal held that "To nature alone must we look for beauty, and the nearer the approach to her creations the more striking the success." As to function, however, scarcely a single implement on these two pages offers a comfortable holder- indeed, if a firm grip were called for, most of the pieces would prove downright painful.
Matthew Digby Wyatt, 1820-1877: The Industrial Arts of the XIXth Century at the Great Exhibition, MDCCCLI. London, Day & Son, 1853. 2 volumes.
KSRL: Ellis F75; Bequest of Ralph Nicholson Ellis