COVE

“The Directors are bold enough to look forward to the Crystal Palace of 1854 becoming an illustrated encyclopedia of this great and varied universe, where every art and every science may find a place, and where every visitor may find something to interest, and be taught through the medium of the eye to receive impressions kindling a desire for knowledge and awakening instincts of the beautiful.” (The Sydenham Crystal Palace Expositor)

The Crystal Palace is a structure that was opened up and resurrected in Sydenham in 1851.  This was one of the many grand structures that was built as a spectacle and to be added to the British Empire.  It was created to be for marketing, commerce, education, and other forms of trade.  It was an original project being completely made out of iron and glass to function as a type of giant greenhouse.  It was home to a wide array of vast cultural memorabilia from across the globe and where the British Empire had reach or connections to.  Such as statues and full courts from Egypt and Italy.  To plants being imported from the Amazon, U.S., India, South America, Australia, and China. (Helmreich)

The Crystal Palace ended up having two fires. One in 1866, and then a second one that ended up fully destroying the structure in 1936.  But from the paintings and old photography taken of this structure, it seemed to be a huge endeavor and perfectly aligns with the idea of being an empire that has every part of the world at its display.  Also having so much culture, it would almost feel like a museum of vanity, showing off that the British Empire has all of the wonders of the world and a top class education having taken knowledge from all parts of the world.  Also the size from the painting would suggest to me that they had intended this to be another wonder of the world with the innovation of building materials and how much land they dedicated to this project.  Unfortunately with it being destroyed, I think we do lose something that directly reflected the Victorian Era and the old British Empire.

Helmreich, Anne. “On the Opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web. Sept. 24, 2021.

Virtue, James Sprent. The Sydenham Crystal Palace Expositor. J.S. Virtue, 1854.