An etching of the earth, covered with people who are all seemingly headed to the Crystal Palace, which is depicted as the “North Pole” of the globe

George Cruikshank’s All the World Going to See the Great Exhibition of 1851

Page with a printed musical score and two illustrations: on the right a herm in black and white, on the left a colored representation of a landscape with a man lying on his back in a field under an expansive sky

“Feldeinsamkeit” from Max Klinger’s Brahms-Phantasie

Etching of an extraordinarily crowded intersection in London, with people filling the streets and the overlooking windows and balconies

George Cruikshank (1792–1878)
London, in 1851
Etching, 1851
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection

London, in 1851

As many as 6 million people visited the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace exhibition hall in 1851. The show in London’s Hyde Park featured over 13,000 exhibits from more than 44 “Foreign States.” George Cruikshank’s prints comment humorously on this occasion, which is considered one of the defining points of the 19th century. Published to illustrate Henry Mayhew’s comical tale titled 1851: or, The Adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Sandboys and Family, Who Came up to London to “Enjoy Themselves,” and to See the Great Exhibition, the prints portray the nations of the world wending their way across the globe to the Crystal Palace and a London jam-packed with visitors.

Holding Division: https://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/wallach-division/print-collection

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