Great exhibitons

The great art and industrial exhibitions got his big break at the London Exhibition in 1851 (The Great Exhibition of works of Industry of All Nations) and after followed several major international exhibitions. World Exhibitions is held even today, most recently in Shanghai, China, 2010.

The exhibitions in 1800s and early 1900s showed the industrial, technological and scientific developments housed in fantastic, often temporary exhibition areas with pavilions, restaurants and amusement parks. Here, visitors could consider industrial progress, scientific experiments, shiny machines, technical curiosity, mass-produced goods, arts and crafts. You could say that the exhibitions put on an educational role. They wanted to pass on knowledge and values to the people to drive development forward and form a way of looking at the world. The growing working was going to be class educated and have a sympathetic attitude to the emerging industrial society. The exhibitions were tributes to the art of engineering and manifestations of the rational work potential. They showed a great faith in modern technology and scientific rationality. They showed innovations in technology and industry and the presented ideas, values and hopes for a desired future social ideals which the leading ideas at the time of each exhibit on display.

The Paris Exposition 1900 (Exposition Universelle 1900) was the biggest of them all with around 50 million visitors.

Also Sweden has had its international and national exhibitions. The biggest of them all was General Art and Industry exhibition in Stockholm which 1897.

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