posted 06-17-2009 01:00 PM            

Hello all,

I recently discovered, in a box of old paper I have for years, a fragment of a catalog of the NYC Crystal Palace exhibition of 1853. I did not even know about this particular fair, but it seems to have been fairly grand, though it didn't last very long. The fragment only includes about the first third of the catalog, but there are some silver pieces among the exhibits. Most of the silver seems to have been sent by the English silversmiths Joseph Angell, including the fabulous centerpieces here. The only American silver exhibit is the last one pictured here, contributed by Tiffany, Young & Ellis. Who actually made it would be difficult to determine, though surprisingly it says it is available in Bronze as well!

In addition to the pictures, there is an article about the electrotyping process, which was a new innovation presented at the fair.

Anyway, a rare blast from the past!

posted 06-17-2009 01:21 PM            

quote:

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The Crystal Palace Exhibition

In 1853-54, New York’s first "world’s fair," the Crystal Palace Exhibition, took place on the site of Bryant Park. The remarkable iron and glass structure erected to house the fair remained standing until 1858, when it burned down.

By the early 1850s New York had grown to sufficient size and prominence that the city decided to host a major exhibition of the type that London had recently pioneered. Such early exhibitions were forerunners of the later world's fairs. The "Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations" opened on July 14, 1853, in a sparsely developed part of the city. Fortieth and Forty-second streets bounded the fair’s four-acre site to the immediate west of the Croton Distributing Reservoir—today's Bryant Park.

President Franklin Pierce delivered a speech at the fair's opening. Within New York's Crystal Palace four thousand exhibitors displayed the industrial wares, consumer goods, and artworks of the nation.

The exhibition set off one of the first major tourism booms in New York, and many hotels were built to handle the influx of visitors. Over one million people visited the Crystal Palace Exhibition, which closed on November 1, 1854. (In spite of its popularity, the exhibition’s sponsors lost $300,000 on the venture.) The structure remained standing after the fair, and was leased for a variety of purposes.

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