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A. N. Wilson: The Wise and Their Works - The Legacy of the Great Exhibition of 1851
Historian A.N. Wilson takes us on a journey into the heart of the progressive Victorian dream, and where it has left us today.
The eminent figures who inspired the Great Exhibition of 1851 – from Henry Cole, who went on to become the V&A’s first Director, to Sir Robert Peel and Prince Albert – were at the centre of an extraordinary combination of manufacturing, commercial skill and political vision.
Join award-winning author and historian A. N. Wilson in celebration of the 175th anniversary of the Great Exhibition for a journey into the heart of the progressive Victorian dream, and its ongoing legacy, including creating the little known but highly influential Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, which led to the establishment of today’s South Kensington cultural quarter.
Header image: 'The Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851', oil painting, by Henry Wyndham Phillips, about 1850, Britain. Museum no. P.112-1920. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London