Works of industry of all nations: Albert and the Great Exhibition

Lecture with Adam Hart-Davis

Date: Wednesday 6 April
Time: 6.30pm - 8pm
Cost: £12 / £10 HRP members

Opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Great Exhibition was an extravaganza of technological talent. Albert was the figurehead and chief promoter of this great spectacle, built a stone’s throw away from Kensington Palace to celebrate the great advances of the British industrial age and the expansion of the empire.

Railway fever had gripped the country, and Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace became a showcase for locomotives and rolling stock. Steam-powered ploughs were on display, along with the electric telegraph, the growing art and science of photography, the world’s first mowing machine, and dozens of other pieces of new-fangled technology from around the world - not to mention George Merryweather’s leech-powered Tempest Prognosticator.

Writer and presenter Adam Hart-Davis will take you on a journey through the inventions and peculiarities of this fascinating spectacle.

This event includes a drinks reception.
For more information and to book, please go to our Adult Learning section of the website.

From Jenny at Kensington