In the V&A/RCA History of Design MA programme, our students have the opportunity to contribute to the day-to-day running of the museum. They can do this through placement projects or by assisting with events. In this post, 2026 graduate Elizabeth (Xinyi) He shares her experience at the National Art Library Discovery Day, where she spoke to visitors about a book that lies at the very roots of the V&A’s history and her own MA research.
Each year, the National Art Library holds four Discovery Days, during which V&A members of staff present and talk to visitors about hidden-gem books and other items in the collection. For the Discovery Day held on 10 April 2026, History of Design master’s students from the joint postgraduate programme between the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art were invited to select an item related to one of the featured themes: Botany, Fashion and the Great Exhibition of 1851
Dickinsons’ Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851
As one of the participating students, I chose Dickinsons’ comprehensive pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851. A book made up of detailed coloured plates, it’s almost like visually eavesdropping on the Great Exhibition. I knew the book well because I had studied it for my MA dissertation titled ‘Cole, Arnoux and Minton’s 1851 Journey: Looking for British Identity in Pottery’, which developed from a placement I undertook with the Acting Head of Programme Dr Simona Valeriani on the ‘Henry Cole’s Diaries Project’.
While studying Henry Cole’s travel journals, I came across Dickinson’s book. You may wonder how Dickinson’s book and Henry Cole are connected. Well, as you may have read elsewhere, Henry Cole was the organiser of the Great Exhibition, the ‘first world fair’, which undoubtedly influenced his later collecting interests and travelling destinations.
Documenting the Great Exhibition of 1851
Dickinsons’ Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 consisted of a series of lithographs which reproduced original watercolours made by the artists Joseph Nash (1809–1878), Louis Haghe (1806–1885), and David Roberts (1796–1864) for Prince Albert. Each illustration visually described a different national pavilion. In what follows, I will discuss how the book’s illustrations and commentary show how the Exhibition was a catalyst for innovation and competition through the examples of the French and German pavilions. The history presented in this Great Exhibition demonstrates international investment in industrial progress. This interests us all because, although technology has changed dramatically since then, the agenda of supporting scientific innovation remains quite relevant.
Sèvres court: Exhibiting to disseminate technical innovation
The Sèvres Court at the French pavilion was a hotspot. Although Chinese porcelain had long served as the historical and technological foundation for European porcelain production, the British juries at the Great Exhibition paid more attention to French porcelain as both a commercial rival and an artistic model for British manufacture. Unsurprisingly, the book included a full-length page devoted to the Sèvres Court and the Department of Practical Art collected French porcelains for teaching purposes.
The fixation with foreign porcelain was real. Henry Cole and Richard Redgrave (the V&A’s first art superintendent) voiced their concerns when they admitted in the Journal of Design (1850) that ‘the best of the pottery designs [were] imitations of the old Dresden and Sèvres designs.’ English manufacturers needed to develop a more distinctive identity. Manufacturers such as Minton and Wedgwood rose to the challenge when they came up with a new (and affordable!) type of earthenware in the style of maiolica. Mass-produced and competitively priced, their products appealed to socially aspirational markets, including in the United States.
Rivalling the tasteful and useful manufactories of the German court
But, besides the French, there were the Germans or, better said, the manufacturers form the German Customs Union, made of twenty-six Germanic States including Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony. Their bronzes and woodcarving were perceived to be of ‘a superior taste in design, composition, and ornamentation’ than the English. Not only that, their products combined ‘utility, taste, and cheapness’. German industry was considered ‘in a satisfactory state of progress.’ Beyond the practical arts, its displays of mining and metallurgy demonstrated exceptional scientific ability. British admiration for French or German manufactories was disingenuous. The publication of these descriptions and plates in Dickinsons’ Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 was intended to foster industrial progress and scientific innovation.
The MA in History of Design provided me with the skills to identify and explore the connections between science and art, which I further developed and applied during my placement on the Henry Cole’s Diaries Project. When I learnt that the National Art Library Discovery Day would focus on the Great Exhibition of 1851, I quickly signed up for the opportunity to share my passion for the subject with museum visitors. The colourful plates in Dickinsons’ Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851 are a visually immersive vehicle for exploring this event and the debates surrounding it.
