The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-05-25
Previous international Exhibitions.
New York Graphic.I

New York Graphic.l
The history of international exhibitions
is full of interest. There has been a
steady development of the original idea
until the primitive acorn is quite lost in
the wide-branching oak. The idea origin
ated with Prince Albert, who probably
thought it would cure Englishmen Of
their intense national conceit. In the
Napoleonic wars soldiers of. Wellington
had conceived the notion that one Eng
lishman was equal to five Frenchmen
and to three men of any other national
ity. And this estimate the English ma
ton had comfortably adopted. They not
only believed, they knew they were su-
perior to all other nations in personal
yigor and ability and skill; that their
mechanism, fabrics, works of art, and
industrial methods were quite beyond
comparison with those of other people.
Prince Albert knew better, but he also
knewb better than to say SO. He proposed
a Worlds Fair, that each nation could
see whak 6tter nations had achieved and
discover its own deficiencies by the com.
parison. When the English people en-
listed to carry out the excellent project
they expected to win plaudits of uni
yersal admiration. That Exhibition
smashed their idol. 1t taught them their
deficiencies. 1t gave new stimulus to
mechanical improvements of all kinds.
1t reyolutionized English art. The South
Kensington Museum sprang directly from
that Exhibition. The pew schools of
design, the 5000 schools and classes Of
art and science, all date back to the i'm
petus given to English effort by the Fair
of 1851. But for that Exhibition she
would have become the laughing-stock
of the rest of Europe in quarter of a
century. Whatever of excellence English
mechanism and art present to-day are
largely due to that Exhibition.
This Worlds Fair was financial sue
cess. 1t was admirably planned and
skillfully managed from the first. And
it showed manufacturers anu inventors
and artists the commercial value of such
exhibitions, and thus stimulated de-
mand for them. Two exhibitions were
soon held in Ireland-ene at Cork and
the other al Dublin. In 1864 uas.eh
larger one was held in Paris. An art
exhibition was held in Manchester which
brought together the choicest pictures
and costliest collections, affecting a
marked change in the taste of thousands
of visitors. The New York Fair was
considered remarkable exhibition at
the time. The two industrial exhibitions
held at Amsterdam and HARLEM in Hol-
land were very successful financially and
in their effect on trade and manufactures.
These were followed by a number of
small exhibitions at Florence, Naples,
Brussels, Rome, and Havre. In 1862
the second Great Fair was held at Lon
don, and was greatly superior to the
first in every respect, and especially in
its artistic features. The gallery was
one of the finest ever constructed for
such a purpose; and this exhibition,
which, it had been predicted, would
prove financial failure, yielded profit
TO its projectors. This exhibition de.
yeloped the idea into an institution. 1t
was henceforth regarded as fixed fact
"a necessity of civilization. The Scan
dinavian nations combined in holding
an exhibition at Stockholm in 1866, and
another at Copenhagen in 1872; and
both were visited and participated in by
other nations. The second Paris Expo
sition, in 1867, was far superior to any
that had preceded it. 1t was the most
splendid affair of the kind ever held.
And itstill further broadens the original
plan, making it more comprehensive in
its scope and more varied and practical
in its details and results. This was fol-
lowed by the Imperial Exhibition at
Moscow in 1872, in which the first at
tempt was made at a thoroughly scien-
tific arrangement and grouping of
articles. 1t was held in the Alexander
Gardens and was over ten miles of ground.
1t was the most educative of the whole
series of exhibitions ever held, but, un-
fortunately, it attracted little attention
in Europe, and was visited by few except
Russia4as. The Vienna exhibition OF
1873 was more international in its char
acter. But the cholera frightened Wis
itois away in a panic and prevented
thousands from going. II was poorly
managed, and various circumstances con-
spired to hinder its success. 1t left 9
deficit of s9,0OO,OO0. But it stimulated
the mechanical industries of Eastern
Europe more than anything that had
previously occurred, and demonstrated
the educational value of these interna.
tional exhibitions. Our Centennial is
unprecedented in this fact, that it con-
meets national celebration with an in
ternational exhibition, thus identifying
the independence and history of America
with the industrial art and progress Of
the world. 1t is the largest exhibition
in its scope and dimensions and the va
riety of articles on display; and con
sidering the social and political elements
that enter into it and cluster around it
and are its inspiring spirit and organic
ing mind, it is not too much to hope tina
it will prove the most important in it
beneficent results.