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The cycle of exhibition, inquiry, and action repeated itself in almost every decade of the second half of the century.
Over the past sixty years, a number of historians have taken the view that lessons about the importance of this kind of education, partly resulting from the sequence of exhibition and inquiry, failed to be learned. In order to test the assumptions upon which this notion is based, and ultimately its validity, this book explores the impact of a series of exhibitions held during the second half of the nineteenth century on technical education, legislation, and the British economy. Those exhibitions that have a direct bearing on the debate are examined. A number of American and French events are drawn upon because they illustrate the link between exhibitions and industrial advance, as well as provide a useful point of comparison. They are also particularly significant because politicians and educationists in Great Britain constantly referred to foreign examples of one sort or another, especially as the period of relative calm generated by British economic and naval power known as the Pax Britannica began to unravel. The events held in England have been chosen on the basis of their proximity to major activity associated with education or trade, or because they make a unique contribution to the overall development of exhibition culture.
This book starts with the 1851 Great Exhibition and then concentrates on the 1867 Paris Exhibition followed by the Select Committee on Scien-tific Instruction and the Devonshire Commission; the 1876 Philadelphia and 1878 Paris Exhibitions and the Samuelson Commission; the 1884 Health and 1885 Innovations exhibitions (both of which were held in London) in association with the Royal Commission on the Depression of Trade, the Technical Instruction Act, and Whisky Money; and finally, the 1893 Chicago and 1900 Paris Exhibitions, the latter contemporary with the Cockerton Judgment and the period during which the foundation was laid for the 1902 Education Act. It ends with an examination of the work of the 1909 International Exhibitions Committee.