Books
Phase
Great Exhibition
1851
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations opened in Hyde Park in May 1851. Housed in Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, it brought manufacturers, inventions, decorative arts and raw materials from Britain, its empire and other participating states before a mass public.
The exhibition celebrated industrial production and international exchange but also reflected Victorian assumptions about empire, hierarchy and progress. Its scale made it a defining spectacle of mid-century Britain.
In The Thief of Time, the exhibition forms one episode in Matthieu Zela’s long life, connecting his changing occupations to the technologies and ambitions of industrial modernity.
