Besides showcasing British technology, Prince Albert also envisioned the Great Exhibition to be a gathering of many nations. He invited other European royals, and, to his great disappointment, nearly all of them refused his invitation.
European nobility, feeling threatened by revolutionary movements in their own countries and abroad, expressed fears about traveling to London. And there was also general opposition to the idea of a great gathering open to people of all classes.
The European nobility snubbed the Great Exhibition, but that mattered not to the ordinary citizens. Crowds turned out in astounding numbers. And with ticket prices cleverly reduced during the summer months, a day at the Crystal Palace was very affordable.
Visitors packed the galleries daily from opening at 10 a.m. (noon on Saturdays) to the 6 p.m. closing. There was so much to see that many, like Queen Victoria herself, came back multiple times, and season tickets were sold.
When the Great Exhibition closed in October, the official tally of visitors was an astonishing 6,039,195.
Americans Sailed the Atlantic to Visit the Great Exhibition
The intense interest in the Great Exhibition extended across the Atlantic. The New York Tribune published an article on April 7, 1851, three weeks before the exhibition's opening, giving advice on traveling from America to England to see what was being called the World's Fair. The newspaper advised the quickest way to cross the Atlantic was by steamers of the Collins Line, which charged a fare of $130, or the Cunard line, which charged $120.
The New York Tribune calculated that an American, budgeting for transportation plus hotels, could travel to London to see the Great Exhibition for about $500.
The legendary editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley, sailed to England to visit the Great Exhibition. He marveled at the amount of items on display, and mentioned in a dispatch written in late May 1851 that he had spent "the better portion of five days there, roaming and gazing at will," but still hadn't come close to seeing everything he hoped to see.
The Crystal Palace Was Moved and Used for Decades
Victorian Britain put out a grand welcome at the Great Exhibition, though there were, at first, some unwelcome visitors.
The Crystal Palace was so enormous that large elm trees of Hyde Park were enclosed within the building. There was a concern that sparrows still nesting high up in the enormous trees would soil visitors as well as exhibits.
Prince Albert mentioned the problem of eliminating the sparrows to his friend the Duke of Wellington. The elderly hero of Waterloo coldly suggested, "Sparrow hawks."
It's unclear exactly how the sparrow problem was solved. But at the end of the Great Exhibition the Crystal Palace was carefully disassembled and the sparrows could once again nest in the Hyde Park elms.
The spectacular building was moved to another location, at Sydenham, where it was enlarged and transformed into a permanent attraction. It remained in use for 85 years until it was destroyed in a fire in 1936.
