That now understood, national pride dictated that the exhibition must bigger and better than anything those Frenchies could organise.Ī competition was organised to design a building that would not only be large enough, but be of sufficient grandeur to house the event. Pessimism appears to have been quickly replaced by enthusiasm when somebody explained to the ‘powers that be’ the concept of a self-financing event.
Under increasing public pressure the government reluctantly set up a Royal Commission to investigate the idea. They wanted it to be for All Nations, the greatest collection of art in industry, ‘for the purpose of exhibition of competition and encouragement’, and most significantly it was to be self-financing. Initially there was little interest in the concept of an exhibition by the government of the day undeterred by this Henry and Albert continued to develop their idea. No doubt impressed by the much larger scale of the French ‘Industrial Exposition’ of 1844, Henry sought Prince Albert’s support to stage a similar event in England. With its raison d’être now clearly defined the society arranged several relatively small exhibitions to promote their cause. It appears that Henry and the prince got on well as not long afterwards the society received a Royal Charter and changed its name to the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce. In 1846, in his role as a council member of the Society of Arts, Henry was introduced to Prince Albert. The journal encouraged artists to apply their designs to everyday articles which could then be mass-produced and sold to the great unwashed. Henry’s major passions appear to have been industry and the arts, and he combined both of these as editor of the Journal of Design. It is Queen Victoria’s husband Albert who is normally credited with being the driving force behind the Great Exhibition of 1851, but it appears that just as much praise for organising this remarkable event should also be bestowed upon one Henry Cole.Īt the time Henry’s day job was as an assistant record keeper at the Public Records Office, but he had lots of other interests to including writing, editing and publishing journals.
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