The Crystal Palace was dismantled and rebuilt in Sydenham after the closing of the Fair and stood there until 1936 when it was destroyed by fire. Although it is no longer standing today, this structure is documented in photographs such as this one, through which it can continue to influence the worlds of architecture and engineering.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first event of its kind, bringing together people from all over the earth in an environment of peace and intellectual stimulation. Conceived as an "Exhibition of the Works of all Nations", the Great Exhibition was the brainchild of Prince Albert and Henry Cole of England. Queen Victoria's husband, his mind always "bent towards the artistic", was easily convinced by Cole to take on this event of massive proportions (Beaver, 11). As President of the Society of Arts, the Prince had played a large role in the exhibitions of 1847, 1848, and 1849. When a Royal Commission was formed in 1850, he was again chosen as President. Consequently, when Cole proposed a larger British Exhibition for the year 1851, he looked to the Prince for approval (Beaver, 11).

The idea of a National Exhibition did not originate with the British, but with the French, who had organized the first exhibition of national products as early as 1798 and had held an exposition every five years since the beginning of the century. The fair in 1849 was particularly well organized and Cole hastily took leave to Paris to observe this event. He found that the initial plans for the 1851 Exposition in London were far too naïve, and if the British wanted to surpass the French, they must set their sights higher. The original site for the Great Exposition was to be the courtyard of Somerset House (Beaver, 12). Thomas Cubitt, a builder and friend of the Prince, suggested that the building site be moved to a much larger site in Hyde Park.

The next task for the Royal Commission was to design a building. An architectural competition was advertised, resulting in "two hundred and forty-five designs from architects of all nations," but the Royal Commission was not entirely satisfied with any of the proposals (Cowper, 1). Taking the most pleasing elements from several designs, the Commission devised a new proposal. This resulted in a "hideous hybridity" that was not well received by the public (Beaver, 15). The proposal was published in the Illustrated London News and the negative reactions nearly resulted in the discontinuation of the Exhibition.

One man, Joseph Paxton, saved the Fair and the Commission. A farmer's son in 1801, he was born in a small village in Bedfordshire, England. As a young man he quickly received recognition for his work as a gardener. At twenty-one he was employed as an undergardener in the arboretum of the Horticultural Society's gardens at Chiswick, an 18th century Palladian Revival house designed by Lord Burlington. Paxton was an excellent example of the "self made man," pulling himself out of a small community to become known as one of the greatest architects of the 19th century. By the age of twenty-three, he was head gardener at the Duke of Devonshire's estate in Chatsworth. From here he went on to build bridges, gasworks, model villages, fountains and much more. Paxton's acknowledged masterpiece was the building he designed at the Chatsworth Estate, the Great Conservatory (1836) that housed a large water lily named the "Victoria Regia," a new species that Paxton had worked on for several years (16). The building created for this natural wonder was a "light and airy structure with a glass roof supported by light wooden beams...these beams were supported in turn by light tubular columns of iron" (Beaver, 17). This unique construction method would become a regular style for Paxton, winning him accolades from the architectural and engineering fields.

Hearing that the Royal Commission was prepared to consider other proposals for the Hyde Park site, Paxton offered his architectural services. The only restriction was that the Committee was only prepared to receive another proposal "providing it was submitted, complete with detailed drawings, within two weeks" (Beaver, 17). In addition, the structure had to be "capable of accommodating tens of thousands of visitors at one time and displaying the arts and manufactures of the whole world but at the same time it also had to be a purely temporary structure". (Beaver, 18) Not only did Paxton accept the two-week time limit, but he stated that he would bring the completed plans back in nine days.

His proposal was very similar to the Conservatory at Chatsworth. The building would also be constructed of wood, iron and glass, a combination that was very suitable for an exhibition. It would also be easily erected and disassembled, and "at the worst the glass and iron would have high scrap value" (Beaver, 17). This appealed to the Committee, but they had yet to dismiss their earlier plans. Paxton's design was finally clinched in the eyes of the public when journalist Douglas Jerrold of Punch dubbed it the "Crystal Palace" (Hobhouse, 37).

As the only building in the Fair, it encompassed 33,000,000 cubic feet, a large volume, which was filled to capacity with exhibition material throughout the duration of the 1851 Fair. To appease public unrest, Paxton decided to incorporate the larger existing trees into his plan by adding a barrel-vaulted transept to the original design. The presence of trees also created an interesting transition between the inside and outside spaces. Paxton told the committee he "hit upon the idea of covering the transept with a circular roof, similar to that on the great conservatory" (The Art Journal, xviii). This arched motif was greatly emulated following the Fair and even today it can be found on buildings ranging from motels to grand office buildings.

Many images were taken of the Crystal Palace in its heyday. Photography had become increasingly popular since its invention in 1839 by artists such as Daguerre and Niepce. Photographers, both amateurs and professionals, traveled to the Fair in hopes of capturing the momentous event on paper. The mid-nineteenth century was a time when only the rich could afford to travel the world. Until the 1840's those of lesser mobility would use such techniques as engraving or watercolors to get a glimpse of major events. The invention of photography heightened this practice and made it easier for tourists to collect images of their travels as well. Many photographers visited the fair to record it and sell the photographs as mementoes or collectables.

The exterior photograph of the Crystal Palace displayed in the collection at the University of Maryland School of Architecture is through modern techniques on modern photographic paper from a vintage glass-plate negative. The earliest photographs were printed directly onto silver plated copper sheets and were non-reproducible. This technique, the daguerrotype, produced marvelously detailed prints on metallic surfaces, but was costly and time consuming (Newhall, 18). In 1841 William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) invented another photographic technique known as the calotype, a process that entailed sensitizing paper rather than copper sheets to produce an image through sunlight. This process created paper negatives, which could be used to make innumerable reproductions of an image (43). The glass-plate negative process "produced a textureless image, far sharper than that of paper negatives" (Smithsonian). These plates were coated with a layer of collodion, and by 1860 the collodion glass-plate negative entirely replaced the paper negative.

The photograph of the East Façade of the Crystal Palace is on a sheet of eight by ten inch twentieth century photographic printing paper with the image comprising only a seven by nine inch area. The print has little tonal separation and is characterized by extreme contrast. Due to modern printing techniques and an aged negative this print is not true to its original color. The print in the collection displays a strong contrast with bright whites and dark blacks. The original photograph was most likely an albumen print, which would have had a rich purple color due to the egg white (albumen) solution and gold chloride toner (Smithsonian). Frederick Scott Archer invented the collodion process in 1851 using a wet plate technique in which the glass plate is coated with a silver iodide solution in suspension and then exposed while wet. This process was very popular during the 1850's until it was replaced by techniques that did not require the precision of the wet plate. Early photographic processes demanded long exposure times to collect the proper amount of light; therefore architectural subjects were often chosen out of convenience. The image of the Crystal Palace is very crisp and clear, most likely due to a longer exposure, capturing the greatest amount of detail. However, because the flags atop the roof structure moved in the wind, this long exposure created ghostly images of some, and left other flagpoles seemingly empty.

The unknown photographer artfully captured the Palace's innovative cast iron and glass construction, which was both structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing. The identifying characteristic, the arched transept, is not visible in this image, thus deceiving the viewer of the grand scale of the building. The photographer chose to record the east façade, capturing the combination of classical detailing (rounded arches) and traditional railway and bridge ornamentation. This type of detailing is often seen in comparable engravings of the time. Barriers for carts and carriages are visible in the foreground of the photograph, giving it a realistic setting, something that is often lacking in artistic renderings. The surrounding park setting is not visible; the photographer chose to crop the image closely, keeping any identifying elements out. A few trees are in view, helping to add scale to the image. The photographer captured the image on a day when the Fair was closed to the public, most likely a Sunday. The photographer Fox Talbot also used Sundays to record images of the interior of the Palace (Beaver, 37).

The Crystal Palace stood for eighty-five years, displaying the power of the British and keeping the legacy of the Great Exhibition alive. The exhibits and the nature of the interior are discussed in the essay accompanying the image of the nave of the Crystal Palace, a photograph by Philip H. Delamotte. The Crystal Palace stood until it burned in 1936. The discussion of this can be found with the image of the dismantling of the Sydenham Crystal Palace.

-Elizabeth Creveling

The Art Journal. Crystal Palace Exhibition. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1970.

Beaver, Patrick. The Crystal Palace, 1851-1936: a portrait of Victorian enterprise. London, Hugh Evelyn Ltd., 1970.

Cowper, Charles. The building erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851. London: Victoria and Albert Museum. 1972.

Hitchcock, Henry Russell. The Crystal Palace: the structure, its antecedents and its immediate progeny: and exhibition. Northampton, Mass.: Smith College Museum of Art, 1952.

Hobhouse, Christopher. 1851 and the Crystal Palace; being an account of the Great Exhibition and its contents; of Sir Joseph Paxton; and the erection, the subsequent history and the destruction of his masterpiece. London, Murray, 1950.

Hyman, Isabelle; Trachtenberg, Marvin. Architecture. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1986.

Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography: from 1839 to the present. New York: Museum of Modern Art. 1982.

Smithsonian. India Trough the Lens: Photography 1840-1911. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. February 2001.

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After a successful year of housing the Great Exposition, the Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton was disassembled and moved to Sydenham, where it stood for the next 85 years (Hobhouse, 32). The Palace, built for the 1851 World's Fair in London, was an architectural and engineering wonder modeled after the bridge and train shed construction of the mid-nineteenth century. The structure had been designed to be quickly assembled out of prefabricated members and easily rebuilt elsewhere. Its light construction was made possible to use of thin cast iron prefabricated elements combined with wood and a glazed outer shell.

The Crystal Palace housed the most spectacular collection of artistic and industrial wonders ever assembled in one place thus far. Visitors came from all over the world to see this display of power at the "Exhibition of the Works of All Nations" which was organized by Prince Albert and Henry Cole (Beaver, 12). The success of the Crystal Palace that cost "a penny per cubic foot" (Hobhouse, 39) brought Joseph Paxton much praise as well as a knighthood. The structure at Hyde Park was designed as a temporary building, able to be constructed and disassembled easily. During the Great Exposition the Crystal Palace housed the works of craftsmen, engineers and artists. The most popular of these exhibits was a crystal fountain made especially for the exhibition (Beaver, 47). The full 33,000,000 cubic feet of Crystal Palace was filled with displays and people crowding the aisles examining these wonders (Hobhouse, 39).

When the Fair closed the fate of the Crystal Palace was a topic of extreme importance. Its popularity was obvious and Paxton suggested transforming it into a "Winter Park and Garden Under Glass" where visitors could see displays of botany, ornithology, and geology and at the same time enjoy the building as an indoor park (Beaver, 69). This proposal was opposed by Colonel Sibthorpe, a member of the Metropolitan Police Force who vehemently disapproved of the nature of the Exposition and the preservation of the building as a cultural icon. Knowing it would take some work to save his masterpiece, Paxton began raising money and eventually came up with over 500,000 pounds. He formed a company to purchase the building from its initial builders, the engineering firm of Fox and Henderson. The site selected to re-erect the Palace was 200 acres of wooded parkland on the summit of Sydenham Hill. Rebuilding began in August 1852.

By rebuilding the famous Crystal Palace and making it a permanent symbol of England's success and role in the Industrial Revolution, the government created a cultural icon that would forever stand in testament to the grand nature of the first International World's Fair. A decision was made to alter the original plans and enlarge the structure, making the Sydenham Palace more massive than its predecessor. The most characteristic portion of the Hyde Park structure, the arched transept, was emulated throughout when the whole structure was rebuilt, creating an entirely arched nave and transept system (Hitchcock, 27). These same arched transepts were considered awe-inspiring by the Victorians, who were deep in the Romantic Age and well versed in the eighteenth-century notion of the Sublime. The lunettes with the familiar spoke pattern provided a terminus for the long nave and served as an element of continuity between the Hyde Park building and the one rebuilt in Sydenham.

The new Crystal Palace became a museum of world cultures, with "style courts" such as the Nineveh, Roman and Egyptian courts depicting ancient and modern civilizations for visitors. Matthew Digby Wyatt and architect Owen Jones were "sent abroad to ransack the world's great art collections" and find ideas for the courts (Beaver, 79). Aside from the great courts, Joseph Paxton also "envisioned a system of fountains that would rival Versailles" (Beaver, 79). To accommodate this great waterworks two large towers were erected further distancing the Sydenham structure from its predecessor in Hyde Park.

Photography had been invented thirteen years before the erection of the Crystal Palace. By 1851 this new medium had gone through many improvements, and quickly became a documentary and artistic tool for all people. Photographs were used for artistic endeavors, documentation, and souvenirs. Many photographers flocked to the Great Exposition to record the feats in architecture and engineering. William Henry Fox Talbot (1820-1877) recorded the interior of the Crystal Palace while it was still in Hyde Park and did so on Sundays while the Exhibition was closed (Beaver, 37). Another photographer, Philip Henry Delamotte (1820-1889) recorded the building after its move to the Sydenham location (Newhall, 110). He also photographed many English landmarks such as Yorkshire abbeys and Strawberry Hill.

Delamotte produced several sets of prints documenting the Crystal Palace, which he sold at a profit. A set of nine original albumen reprints is housed in the Special Collections room of the University of Maryland Architecture Library. One print titled "View up Nave from Gallery at North End" displays the vast interior of the new structure. It is approximately eight by ten inches mounted professionally for the set published by Crystal Palace Art Union. Printed on the paper surrounding the photograph are captions including Delamotte's name and documentation attributing the printing to "Negretti & Zambra."

The print on the screen exhibits the deep purple hues achieved through the albumen process and gold chloride solution. The characteristic color was protected from fading on the edges by mounting the prints and keeping them in a darkened collectible box. There is little tonal separation, due to the nature of albumen printing. The geometric complexity of the structure is clearly shown, as well as its numerous galleries and the roof structure displaying the beautiful arched nave. Delamotte positioned his tripod along a side of the nave to achieve a perspective view that would capture the great depth of the building and convey the grand nature of the space. In the foreground Delamotte captured a large amount of detail in the vegetation and supports. The photograph reflects the impression that the exhibits "inhabit" the building, allowing the viewer to see how replete the Palace was with displays. Delamotte did not need to use supplementary lighting; the building itself was perfect for photographs, a virtual skylight. All that was needed was a sunny day. Patches of sun can be seen on the floor. Delamotte could clearly sense the architectural beauty in his subject and captured it artfully. The hustle and bustle of the original building is not conveyed in this print, which possesses a serene quality due to the lack of human presence.

Delamotte was able to capture the character of the Crystal Palace, and provided the public a peek into the famous structure. The Crystal Palace will live forever in his beautiful prints helping to influence artists and architects into the future. During its 85 years standing, the Crystal Palace appeared in millions of photographs, establishing it as a symbol of English power from both a political and architectural standpoint.

-Elizabeth Creveling

Arts Council of Great Britain. Sir Joseph Paxton, 1803-1865 / a centenary exhibition organized in association with the Victorian Society [by the] Arts Council of Great Britain. London: The Arts Council, 1965.

Beaver, Patrick. The Crystal Palace, 1851-1936: a portrait of Victorian enterprise. London, Hugh Evelyn Ltd., 1970.

Briggs, Asa. Iron Bridge to Crystal Palace: impact and images of the Industrial Revolution. London: Thames and Hudson in collaboration with the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, c1979.

Hitchcock, Henry Russell. The Crystal Palace: the structure, its antecedents and its immediate progeny: and exhibition. Northampton, Mass.: Smith College Museum of Art, 1952.

Hobhouse, Christopher. 1851 and the Crystal Palace; being an account of the Great Exhibition and its contents; of Sir Joseph Paxton; and the erection, the subsequent history and the destruction of his masterpiece. London, Murray, 1950.

Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography: from 1839 to the present. New York: Museum of Modern Art. 1982.

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The Crystal Palace designed by Joseph Paxton stood for eighty-five years. It succumbed to fire "at six o'clock on the evening of 30th November 1936" (Beaver, 141). A fire was discovered in the staff lavatory, and within minutes the whole structure was ablaze. The spectacular building was engulfed in fire as it dissolved into just a skeleton of its former structure. Paxton used innovative methods of construction on the Crystal Palace, greatly influenced by the bridge and train shed construction of the day. With the introduction of iron elements, architects could be more creative, and more "modern" with their designs, straying from classical precedents.

Paxton, with engineers Fox and Henderson, "created what amounted to a giant greenhouse, which was fabricated of little more then panes of glass and iron-and-wood framework" (Hyman & Trachtenberg, 482). It was predicted that the building would require a staggering amount of new materials: "900,000 square feet of glass," "3,300 iron columns; 2,224 girders; and 205 miles of sashbars" (Hobhouse, 39). The use of standardized, prefabricated materials helped to revolutionize architectural methods, prompting other designers to follow Paxton's lead. The Galerie des Machines and the Eiffel Tower built for the Paris 1889 Fair both implemented the light, airy method of iron construction.

The grand exhibition building was constructed out of prefabricated elements that were easily erected and could be disassembled when the exhibition was over. The Crystal Palace was first built in Hyde Park, the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851, where it stood for one year. After the fair, it was decided that the building would be taken down and reassembled in Sydenham where it would become a "Winter Park and Garden under Glass" open to the public (Beaver, 69). Once it was transferred to Sydenham, the Palace became a symbol of England's industrial power and political prestige. The Crystal Palace was "a monumental relic of the golden age" and its destruction was devastating to the people of England (Beaver, 143). When the Crystal Palace burned a cultural symbol was destroyed and part of England as well.

The image of the great Palace in flames must have been one of great awe and sadness. The fire spread quickly as "the dry wood of the gallery floorboards, the walls and the sashes burnt like tinder", "within half an hour the building was an inferno from end to end" (Beaver, 141). Firefighters came from all over London to fight the blaze, "89 engines and 381 firemen" joining to save the structure (Beaver, 141). The fire surely spread quickly as poor ventilation and a greenhouse-like atmosphere fueled the flames. The materials, glass, wood and iron, all highly flammable, increased the speed at which the fire destroyed the building. Glass sheets created in a "length of 49 inches" (Cowper, 2) were specially designed by the Chance Brothers, "the only glass manufacturers in England who were capable of producing anything like the quantity that Paxton was going to need" (Hobhouse, 39). During the fire "whole squares of glass were blown high into the air to dash down in the surrounding streets" (Beaver, 141). According to Patrick Beaver in The Crystal Palace, 1851-1936: a portrait of Victorian Enterprise "the destruction of the Crystal Palace portended the end of the age-old system of values, attitudes and morals already being undermined in the 1930's and which was to be swept away finally by the war of 1939" (146).

The London Times covered the aftermath of the fire, yet few photographs remain of the efforts made to clean up the site. Housed in this collection is a set of six photographs, each three by three inches that recorded the demolition of the Crystal Palace in 1936. They are 'snapshots' rather than professional photographs as in the earlier images of the Crystal Palace (East Fa‡ade, and P. H. Delamotte prints). In the years since its invention in 1839 photography had developed into a pastime available to the middle class. These photographs were most likely taken by a local Londoner who wished to record the historic event. It is through humble documents such as this that we gain new insight into the past and are able to appreciate monuments of architecture.

In this image only the long barrel vault of the transept remains of the original structure. The skeleton of the Crystal Palace stands in the background as two workers haul away rubble at the foot of a billboard declaring the "Dismantling by Thomas W Ward, LTD." The iron ribs that support the vault are clearly visible in the photo, as the surrounding sheathing materials have been destroyed. The strong contrast of black and white tones reflects the somber mood of the event, and adds to the drama of the great fire. When the structure was moved to Sydenham it was made more permanent by adding a masonry foundation with classical elements that can be clearly seen in this image. Pieces of bent iron supports can also be seen, bearing witness to the sheer force of the fire and its destructive nature. Iron construction is extremely strong, and the iron itself is not flammable, yet it loses its ability to support great weight under the effects of high temperatures. The fire weakened the beams, causing them to bend and curl under their own weight. This quickly brought down the structure, and rendered it unable to salvage. What was left was a heap of rubble, visible in this photograph. Workers carted away the destroyed Palace, totally removing it from the site. Only one tower was saved from the fire. It was later removed thus leaving no record of the great building that once stood on the site. This set of amateur photographs provides a wonderful documentation of one of the world's most famous creations of architecture, a building that is otherwise lost to the world.

The grounds at the Sydenham sight became a public park, devoid of the original structure. All that remain now are a few of the sculptures added by Paxton and Cole to decorate the park (Beaver, 146). Thanks to personal photographs and private collections such as that of the University of Maryland we are able to get a glimpse of an architectural and social icon.

-Elizabeth Creveling

Beaver, Patrick. The Crystal Palace, 1851-1936: a portrait of Victorian enterprise. London, Hugh Evelyn Ltd., 1970.

Cowper, Charles. The building erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851. London: Victoria and Albert Museum. 1972.

Hobhouse, Christopher. 1851 and the Crystal Palace; being an account of the Great Exhibition and its contents; of Sir Joseph Paxton; and the erection, the subsequent history and the destruction of his masterpiece. London, Murray, 1950.

Hyman, Isabelle; Trachtenberg, Marvin. Architecture. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1986.

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