WORLD’S FAIRS.

315

_ THE AMERICAN CrYSTAL PALACE,

URING the past half century a favorite and

J effective method of displaying and recording
the industrial progress of the world has been found
in the holding of World’s Fairs or Universal Exhi-
bitions. Almost every important capital of the
world has now held one or more of these interesting
displays, each in succession striving to outdo its pre-
decessors in extent and magnificence, until the latest
of them truly present in epitome the invention, indus-
try, art, science, and general progress of the entire

followed, and almost simultaneously with the exhibi-
tion in the Irish metropolis a similar exhibition was
opened in the capital of the Western Hemisphere.
The American Crystal Palace, which was opened
in New York in 1853, was in point of size much
inferior to its prototype in London, and altogether
insignificant when contrasted with the stupendous
exhibitions of later years. For its time, however, it
was porportionately equal to any that has ever been
held. At that time New York City contained only

 

WCRLD'S FAIR, NEW YORK, 1853.

world. It was fitting that the first of these universal
exhibitions should be held in the world’s chief city,
London. It was opened in 1851 in a huge building
erected in Hyde Park for the purpose, known as the
Crystal Palace. This stupendous structure was com-
posed chiefly of iron and glass and had a floor area
of more than one million square feet, In size and
originality of design it was one of the marvels of the
world. The example quickly stimulated similar
enterprises in other capitals. Dublin and Paris soon

a little more than half a million inhabitants, or about
one-third of its present population. The develup-
ment of the United States was still less advanced.
What are now central Western States were then
sparsely settled frontier territories. The Pacific
railroads were a dream of the dim future. The
Atlantic Cable was a vision. The telegraph itself
was a mere rudiment of its present development.
The railroad and the steamboat were primitive affairs.
Even horse cars had not come into general use.