Elizabeth Outka
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195372694
- eISBN:
- 9780199871704
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372694.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter turns from the model communities discussed in the previous chapter to the individual country dwelling, analyzing a cluster of efforts to unite modern commercial ventures to the ...
More
This chapter turns from the model communities discussed in the previous chapter to the individual country dwelling, analyzing a cluster of efforts to unite modern commercial ventures to the production of the “authentic” home. The chapter explores new developments in domestic architecture (most notably in the homes designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens), the launch of the Daily Mail’s Ideal Home Exhibition, and E. M. Forster’s contradictory approaches to authentic country dwellings in Howards End. Promoting the “neo-nostalgic home” became central to literary and commercial efforts to market and manipulate time. All these efforts-though in different arenas-imagined new ways that commercial ventures might sustain nostalgic visions within the individual dwelling, and considered together, they reveal how the idea of “home” was suddenly not a given or fixed quality but something that could be deliberately and carefully constructed.Less
This chapter turns from the model communities discussed in the previous chapter to the individual country dwelling, analyzing a cluster of efforts to unite modern commercial ventures to the production of the “authentic” home. The chapter explores new developments in domestic architecture (most notably in the homes designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens), the launch of the Daily Mail’s Ideal Home Exhibition, and E. M. Forster’s contradictory approaches to authentic country dwellings in Howards End. Promoting the “neo-nostalgic home” became central to literary and commercial efforts to market and manipulate time. All these efforts-though in different arenas-imagined new ways that commercial ventures might sustain nostalgic visions within the individual dwelling, and considered together, they reveal how the idea of “home” was suddenly not a given or fixed quality but something that could be deliberately and carefully constructed.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199276684
- eISBN:
- 9780191603389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199276684.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter seeks to analyse the involvement of Jews and Quakers in a range of scientific institutions. One is the Royal Society of London, the membership of which was open to non-Anglicans since no ...
More
This chapter seeks to analyse the involvement of Jews and Quakers in a range of scientific institutions. One is the Royal Society of London, the membership of which was open to non-Anglicans since no corporeal oath was required. The membership patterns of both Jews and Quakers displayed networks of business and of patronage, as illustrated by the career of Emanuel Mendes da Costa among others. Quakers flocked to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA), which they found ideologically appealing. Quaker social and political interests were also reflected in the Aborigines’ Protection Society and the Ethnological Society, where they adopted a monogenist stance that was opposed by other ethnologists. Jewish concerns with assimilation and improvement were manifested in the Jews’ and General Scientific and Literary Institution (1844-59). Both communities were greatly attracted by the Great Exhibition (1851), but in different ways: for the Anglo-Jewry, it raised the question of whether Jews were intellectually able; the Quakers saw it as a harbinger of world peace.Less
This chapter seeks to analyse the involvement of Jews and Quakers in a range of scientific institutions. One is the Royal Society of London, the membership of which was open to non-Anglicans since no corporeal oath was required. The membership patterns of both Jews and Quakers displayed networks of business and of patronage, as illustrated by the career of Emanuel Mendes da Costa among others. Quakers flocked to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA), which they found ideologically appealing. Quaker social and political interests were also reflected in the Aborigines’ Protection Society and the Ethnological Society, where they adopted a monogenist stance that was opposed by other ethnologists. Jewish concerns with assimilation and improvement were manifested in the Jews’ and General Scientific and Literary Institution (1844-59). Both communities were greatly attracted by the Great Exhibition (1851), but in different ways: for the Anglo-Jewry, it raised the question of whether Jews were intellectually able; the Quakers saw it as a harbinger of world peace.
Heather Glen
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199272556
- eISBN:
- 9780191699627
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272556.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This study of Charlotte Brontë's novels draws on original research in a range of early Victorian writings, on subjects ranging from women's day-dreaming to sanitary reform, from the Great Exhibition ...
More
This study of Charlotte Brontë's novels draws on original research in a range of early Victorian writings, on subjects ranging from women's day-dreaming to sanitary reform, from the Great Exhibition to early Victorian religious thought. It is not, however, merely a study of context. Through a close consideration of the ways in which Brontë's novels engage with the thinking of their time, it offers a powerful argument for the ‘literary’ as a distinctive mode of intelligence, and reveals a Charlotte Brontë more alert to her historical moment and far more aesthetically sophisticated than she has usually been taken to be.Less
This study of Charlotte Brontë's novels draws on original research in a range of early Victorian writings, on subjects ranging from women's day-dreaming to sanitary reform, from the Great Exhibition to early Victorian religious thought. It is not, however, merely a study of context. Through a close consideration of the ways in which Brontë's novels engage with the thinking of their time, it offers a powerful argument for the ‘literary’ as a distinctive mode of intelligence, and reveals a Charlotte Brontë more alert to her historical moment and far more aesthetically sophisticated than she has usually been taken to be.
Élisabeth Anstett and Jean-Marc Dreyfus (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781526107381
- eISBN:
- 9781526120694
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526107381.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This book addresses the practices, treatment and commemoration of victims’ remains in post-genocide and mass violence contexts. Whether reburied, concealed, stored, abandoned or publically displayed, ...
More
This book addresses the practices, treatment and commemoration of victims’ remains in post-genocide and mass violence contexts. Whether reburied, concealed, stored, abandoned or publically displayed, human remains raise a vast number of questions regarding their legal, ethical and social uses.
Human Remains in Society will raise these issues by examining when, how and why bodies are hidden or exhibited. Using case studies from multiple continents, each chapter will interrogate their effect on human remains, either desired or unintended, on various political, cultural or religious practices. How, for instance, do issues of confiscation, concealment or the destruction of bodies and body parts in mass crime impact on transitional processes, commemoration or judicial procedures?Less
This book addresses the practices, treatment and commemoration of victims’ remains in post-genocide and mass violence contexts. Whether reburied, concealed, stored, abandoned or publically displayed, human remains raise a vast number of questions regarding their legal, ethical and social uses.
Human Remains in Society will raise these issues by examining when, how and why bodies are hidden or exhibited. Using case studies from multiple continents, each chapter will interrogate their effect on human remains, either desired or unintended, on various political, cultural or religious practices. How, for instance, do issues of confiscation, concealment or the destruction of bodies and body parts in mass crime impact on transitional processes, commemoration or judicial procedures?
Jo Briggs
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719089640
- eISBN:
- 9781526109590
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089640.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
First performed on 21 May 1850, the satirical play Novelty Fair; or Hints for 1851 opened at almost exactly the middle of the 19th century. Its plot juxtaposes 1848, Chartism and republicanism, with ...
More
First performed on 21 May 1850, the satirical play Novelty Fair; or Hints for 1851 opened at almost exactly the middle of the 19th century. Its plot juxtaposes 1848, Chartism and republicanism, with 1851 and the coming Great Exhibition. Using Novelty Fair as inspiration, this book brings together Victorian people, things and places typically understood to be unrelated. By juxtaposing urban fairs and the Great Exhibition, daguerreotypes and ballads, satirical shilling books and government backed design reform, blackface performers and middle-class paterfamilias, a strikingly different picture of mid 19th-century culture emerges. Rather than a clean break between revolution and exhibition, class-consciousness and consumerism, popular and didactic, risqué and respectable, an examination of a wide range of sources reveals these themes to be interdependent and mutually defined. As a result, the years of Chartism and the Great Exhibition are shown to be far more contested than previously recognized, with bourgeois forms and strategies under stress in a period that has often been seen as a triumphant one for that class.Less
First performed on 21 May 1850, the satirical play Novelty Fair; or Hints for 1851 opened at almost exactly the middle of the 19th century. Its plot juxtaposes 1848, Chartism and republicanism, with 1851 and the coming Great Exhibition. Using Novelty Fair as inspiration, this book brings together Victorian people, things and places typically understood to be unrelated. By juxtaposing urban fairs and the Great Exhibition, daguerreotypes and ballads, satirical shilling books and government backed design reform, blackface performers and middle-class paterfamilias, a strikingly different picture of mid 19th-century culture emerges. Rather than a clean break between revolution and exhibition, class-consciousness and consumerism, popular and didactic, risqué and respectable, an examination of a wide range of sources reveals these themes to be interdependent and mutually defined. As a result, the years of Chartism and the Great Exhibition are shown to be far more contested than previously recognized, with bourgeois forms and strategies under stress in a period that has often been seen as a triumphant one for that class.
Uri McMillan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479802111
- eISBN:
- 9781479865451
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479802111.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter continues reinterpreting otherwise banal nineteenth-century behaviors and fierce acts of bravery as forms of black performance art in by shifting to an examination of fugitive slave ...
More
This chapter continues reinterpreting otherwise banal nineteenth-century behaviors and fierce acts of bravery as forms of black performance art in by shifting to an examination of fugitive slave Ellen Craft’s passing performances; her radical actions succeeded in eventually freeing Craft and her husband William from chattel slavery in rural Georgia, and eventually transforming them into veteran performers in the United States and British Isles. The chapter lays bare the sundry sartorial and synthetic props of Craft’s handicapped white male avatar, “Mr. William Johnson.” It aims to reveal how Craft’s aforementioned prosthetic performances—fusing clothing-based items to faux acts of disability—succeeded in eliciting sympathy (and prompting action) from unbeknownst white spectators. This chapter also briefly turns to Craft’s cousins, Frank and Mary, to emphasize their shared use of performance-based methods in their equally perilous collaborative escape. The chapter, then, travels across the Atlantic Ocean as it moves from Craft’s improvised escape acts to her otherwise banal peregrinations at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and her staging of her white mulatta body as a disruptive agent. Finally, the chapter ends with a discussion of the engraving of Craft in her partial escape costume that appeared in the London Illustrated News the same year (and later as the frontispiece to Running a Thousand Miles to Freedom), urging a reading of this engraving as a unique depiction, neither of her nor of her white male avatar, but rather both simultaneously.Less
This chapter continues reinterpreting otherwise banal nineteenth-century behaviors and fierce acts of bravery as forms of black performance art in by shifting to an examination of fugitive slave Ellen Craft’s passing performances; her radical actions succeeded in eventually freeing Craft and her husband William from chattel slavery in rural Georgia, and eventually transforming them into veteran performers in the United States and British Isles. The chapter lays bare the sundry sartorial and synthetic props of Craft’s handicapped white male avatar, “Mr. William Johnson.” It aims to reveal how Craft’s aforementioned prosthetic performances—fusing clothing-based items to faux acts of disability—succeeded in eliciting sympathy (and prompting action) from unbeknownst white spectators. This chapter also briefly turns to Craft’s cousins, Frank and Mary, to emphasize their shared use of performance-based methods in their equally perilous collaborative escape. The chapter, then, travels across the Atlantic Ocean as it moves from Craft’s improvised escape acts to her otherwise banal peregrinations at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and her staging of her white mulatta body as a disruptive agent. Finally, the chapter ends with a discussion of the engraving of Craft in her partial escape costume that appeared in the London Illustrated News the same year (and later as the frontispiece to Running a Thousand Miles to Freedom), urging a reading of this engraving as a unique depiction, neither of her nor of her white male avatar, but rather both simultaneously.
Michael Clark
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199562343
- eISBN:
- 9780191721441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562343.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter analyses the changing nature of the community's make-up and identity during the 1880s. It focuses on the revolutionary impact of mass Jewish immigration upon the character of the ...
More
This chapter analyses the changing nature of the community's make-up and identity during the 1880s. It focuses on the revolutionary impact of mass Jewish immigration upon the character of the established community and its position within British society, covering issues such as altering socio-economic patterns and the minority's acculturated charitable ethos. The chapter also explores the concomitant identity changes Anglo-Jews experienced, tracing the emergence of increasing ethnic conceptions of Jewishness on one hand, and more de-nationalised articulations on the other. It suggests that these developments stimulated Anglo-Jewry's historical consciousness, leading to events such as the 1887 Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, which is examined as an indication of the closure of this period of Anglo-Jewish experience, the end of the immediate post-emancipation era.Less
This chapter analyses the changing nature of the community's make-up and identity during the 1880s. It focuses on the revolutionary impact of mass Jewish immigration upon the character of the established community and its position within British society, covering issues such as altering socio-economic patterns and the minority's acculturated charitable ethos. The chapter also explores the concomitant identity changes Anglo-Jews experienced, tracing the emergence of increasing ethnic conceptions of Jewishness on one hand, and more de-nationalised articulations on the other. It suggests that these developments stimulated Anglo-Jewry's historical consciousness, leading to events such as the 1887 Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, which is examined as an indication of the closure of this period of Anglo-Jewish experience, the end of the immediate post-emancipation era.
Rupert Richard Arrowsmith
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199593699
- eISBN:
- 9780191595684
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593699.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter examines the wave of interest in Japanese visual culture that spread out from Ezra Pound profoundly to affect the work of the other literary figures associated with Imagism, and ...
More
This chapter examines the wave of interest in Japanese visual culture that spread out from Ezra Pound profoundly to affect the work of the other literary figures associated with Imagism, and considers the circumstances under which Pound's attention turned away towards China. New evidence is presented to show that Richard Aldington began writing Japan-influenced poetry in the British Museum Print Room at the same time as Pound's visits, while John Gould Fletcher and Amy Lowell looked at similar exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The cultural effects of the 1910 Japan–British exhibition in London —attended by eight million people —are also considered. Pound's interest in China is shown to have developed during 1913 —not 1910 as has been alleged by certain other critics —as a result of two important exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery and the V&A.Less
This chapter examines the wave of interest in Japanese visual culture that spread out from Ezra Pound profoundly to affect the work of the other literary figures associated with Imagism, and considers the circumstances under which Pound's attention turned away towards China. New evidence is presented to show that Richard Aldington began writing Japan-influenced poetry in the British Museum Print Room at the same time as Pound's visits, while John Gould Fletcher and Amy Lowell looked at similar exhibits at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The cultural effects of the 1910 Japan–British exhibition in London —attended by eight million people —are also considered. Pound's interest in China is shown to have developed during 1913 —not 1910 as has been alleged by certain other critics —as a result of two important exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery and the V&A.
Heather Glen
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199272556
- eISBN:
- 9780191699627
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272556.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Lucy Snowe's narrative poses a distinctive challenge to that gospel of effectiveness and well-being being publicly celebrated and ostentatiously proclaimed in the England in which Villette was ...
More
Lucy Snowe's narrative poses a distinctive challenge to that gospel of effectiveness and well-being being publicly celebrated and ostentatiously proclaimed in the England in which Villette was conceived. After the insecure 1830s and 1840s, the nation appeared to be entering upon a new period of economic health and social stability; in which, as one twentieth-century historian puts it, ‘contentment as well as prosperity seemed more widely enjoyed’. The Great Exhibition was a potent symbol of this optimism. Both the mighty spectacle itself and the ‘orderly…manageable…good-humouredly amenable’ crowds who came to it inspired ‘admiration of the present and confidence in the future’. Both seemed to give evidence that England was ‘moving in a right direction towards some superior condition of society’, in which ‘a more refined and fixed condition of happiness’ might be universally shared.Less
Lucy Snowe's narrative poses a distinctive challenge to that gospel of effectiveness and well-being being publicly celebrated and ostentatiously proclaimed in the England in which Villette was conceived. After the insecure 1830s and 1840s, the nation appeared to be entering upon a new period of economic health and social stability; in which, as one twentieth-century historian puts it, ‘contentment as well as prosperity seemed more widely enjoyed’. The Great Exhibition was a potent symbol of this optimism. Both the mighty spectacle itself and the ‘orderly…manageable…good-humouredly amenable’ crowds who came to it inspired ‘admiration of the present and confidence in the future’. Both seemed to give evidence that England was ‘moving in a right direction towards some superior condition of society’, in which ‘a more refined and fixed condition of happiness’ might be universally shared.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
New research challenges the standard portrayal of the Great Exhibition as a manifestly secular event confined to celebrating the success of science, technology, and manufacturing. This innovative ...
More
New research challenges the standard portrayal of the Great Exhibition as a manifestly secular event confined to celebrating the success of science, technology, and manufacturing. This innovative reappraisal demonstrates that the Exhibition was widely understood by contemporaries to possess a religious dimension and generated controversy among religious groups. To popular acclaim Prince Albert bestowed legitimacy on the Exhibition by proclaiming it to be a display of divine providence. Others, however, interpreted the Exhibition as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. With anti-Catholic feeling running high following the recent ‘papal aggression’, many Protestants roundly condemned those exhibits associated with Catholicism and some even denounced the Exhibition as a Papist plot. Catholics, for their part, criticized the Exhibition as a further example of religious repression, as did many secularists. Jews generally welcomed the Exhibition, as did Unitarians, Quakers, Congregationalists, and a wide spectrum of Anglicans—but all for different reasons. This diversity of perception is explored through such sources as contemporary sermons and, most importantly, the highly differentiated religious press. Several religious organizations energetically rose to the occasion, including the Religious Tract Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society, both of which mounted displays inside the Crystal Palace. Such evangelicals considered the Exhibition to be a divinely ordained opportunity to make converts, especially among ‘heathens’ and foreigners. To accomplish this task they initiated a range of dedicated activities including the distribution of countless tracts, printing Bibles in several languages, and holding special services. Taken all together these religious responses to the Exhibition shed fresh light on a crucial mid‐century event.Less
New research challenges the standard portrayal of the Great Exhibition as a manifestly secular event confined to celebrating the success of science, technology, and manufacturing. This innovative reappraisal demonstrates that the Exhibition was widely understood by contemporaries to possess a religious dimension and generated controversy among religious groups. To popular acclaim Prince Albert bestowed legitimacy on the Exhibition by proclaiming it to be a display of divine providence. Others, however, interpreted the Exhibition as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. With anti-Catholic feeling running high following the recent ‘papal aggression’, many Protestants roundly condemned those exhibits associated with Catholicism and some even denounced the Exhibition as a Papist plot. Catholics, for their part, criticized the Exhibition as a further example of religious repression, as did many secularists. Jews generally welcomed the Exhibition, as did Unitarians, Quakers, Congregationalists, and a wide spectrum of Anglicans—but all for different reasons. This diversity of perception is explored through such sources as contemporary sermons and, most importantly, the highly differentiated religious press. Several religious organizations energetically rose to the occasion, including the Religious Tract Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society, both of which mounted displays inside the Crystal Palace. Such evangelicals considered the Exhibition to be a divinely ordained opportunity to make converts, especially among ‘heathens’ and foreigners. To accomplish this task they initiated a range of dedicated activities including the distribution of countless tracts, printing Bibles in several languages, and holding special services. Taken all together these religious responses to the Exhibition shed fresh light on a crucial mid‐century event.
Martin Ceadel
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199241170
- eISBN:
- 9780191696893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199241170.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
In the history of the peace movement, the Great Exhibition and London Peace Congress are remembered as the peace movement's most confident moments but it was thrown onto the defensive as the French ...
More
In the history of the peace movement, the Great Exhibition and London Peace Congress are remembered as the peace movement's most confident moments but it was thrown onto the defensive as the French invasion sowed fear leading to the passage of a Militia Act in 1852. The Eastern Question was revived and pressured an anti-Russian crusade resulting in Britain's decision to declare war in March 1854. Other challenges faced by the movement were Palmerston's victory in the 1857 general election and the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. In a decade and a half, the peace movement proved that it was not a temporary product of unusual circumstances. Instead it gained new integrity by surviving and enjoyed modest rewards such as the Protocol 23 of the Treaty of Paris, the growing disillusionment with the Crimean War, and avoiding British government intervention.Less
In the history of the peace movement, the Great Exhibition and London Peace Congress are remembered as the peace movement's most confident moments but it was thrown onto the defensive as the French invasion sowed fear leading to the passage of a Militia Act in 1852. The Eastern Question was revived and pressured an anti-Russian crusade resulting in Britain's decision to declare war in March 1854. Other challenges faced by the movement were Palmerston's victory in the 1857 general election and the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. In a decade and a half, the peace movement proved that it was not a temporary product of unusual circumstances. Instead it gained new integrity by surviving and enjoyed modest rewards such as the Protocol 23 of the Treaty of Paris, the growing disillusionment with the Crimean War, and avoiding British government intervention.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
Two issues are addressed in this chapter. First, the standard secular interpretation is shown to be an inadequate account of contemporary reactions to the Exhibition because it ignores the extensive ...
More
Two issues are addressed in this chapter. First, the standard secular interpretation is shown to be an inadequate account of contemporary reactions to the Exhibition because it ignores the extensive range of primary source material of a religious nature, especially sermons and the contemporary periodical press that commented on the Exhibition from many different denominational perspectives. Such sources provide the basis for reinterpreting the Exhibition within a religious framework. In order to undertake this, the second section of this chapter offers a brief overview of the main divisions within Anglicanism and between the Established Church and Dissent. Particular attention is paid to two themes that recur in later chapters, evangelicalism and the heightened anti‐Catholicism following the recent ‘paper aggression’.Less
Two issues are addressed in this chapter. First, the standard secular interpretation is shown to be an inadequate account of contemporary reactions to the Exhibition because it ignores the extensive range of primary source material of a religious nature, especially sermons and the contemporary periodical press that commented on the Exhibition from many different denominational perspectives. Such sources provide the basis for reinterpreting the Exhibition within a religious framework. In order to undertake this, the second section of this chapter offers a brief overview of the main divisions within Anglicanism and between the Established Church and Dissent. Particular attention is paid to two themes that recur in later chapters, evangelicalism and the heightened anti‐Catholicism following the recent ‘paper aggression’.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the many contemporary publications expressing anxiety that the Exhibition would undermine the Protestant faith in Britain. For some the threat came from foreign atheists intent ...
More
This chapter examines the many contemporary publications expressing anxiety that the Exhibition would undermine the Protestant faith in Britain. For some the threat came from foreign atheists intent on importing revolution, while others feared that in the light of the recent ‘papal aggression’ the Exhibition would be utilized by Catholics to undermine Protestantism. Others turned to prophecy to make sense of the Exhibition, interpreting it as a sign of the forthcoming apocalypse presaged by such biblical episodes as the destruction of the ungodly at Belshazzar's Feast, which, like the Exhibition, was a celebration of luxury. Another favourite text concerned the confusion of tongues and dispersion at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9), which seemed particularly apposite as the Exhibition attracted foreigners speaking many different languages.Less
This chapter examines the many contemporary publications expressing anxiety that the Exhibition would undermine the Protestant faith in Britain. For some the threat came from foreign atheists intent on importing revolution, while others feared that in the light of the recent ‘papal aggression’ the Exhibition would be utilized by Catholics to undermine Protestantism. Others turned to prophecy to make sense of the Exhibition, interpreting it as a sign of the forthcoming apocalypse presaged by such biblical episodes as the destruction of the ungodly at Belshazzar's Feast, which, like the Exhibition, was a celebration of luxury. Another favourite text concerned the confusion of tongues and dispersion at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9), which seemed particularly apposite as the Exhibition attracted foreigners speaking many different languages.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
This chapter examines how religious issues permeated preparations for the Exhibition. Most importantly, at the Mansion House banquet on 21 March 1850 Prince Albert unambiguously portrayed the ...
More
This chapter examines how religious issues permeated preparations for the Exhibition. Most importantly, at the Mansion House banquet on 21 March 1850 Prince Albert unambiguously portrayed the Exhibition as an event to celebrate God's providence. The religious ethos of the Exhibition was further stressed at the opening ceremony on 1 May 1851 both by Albert and in the Archbishop of Canterbury's benediction. Although some High Churchmen and Catholics strongly objected to the Archbishop blessing a manifestly secular event, these interventions were widely seen as providing a religious sanction for the Exhibition. This chapter also draws attention to such publications as James Emerton's Moral and Religious Guide to the Great Exhibition and the competition with a £100 prize for an essay that supported the Exhibition from a religious perspective.Less
This chapter examines how religious issues permeated preparations for the Exhibition. Most importantly, at the Mansion House banquet on 21 March 1850 Prince Albert unambiguously portrayed the Exhibition as an event to celebrate God's providence. The religious ethos of the Exhibition was further stressed at the opening ceremony on 1 May 1851 both by Albert and in the Archbishop of Canterbury's benediction. Although some High Churchmen and Catholics strongly objected to the Archbishop blessing a manifestly secular event, these interventions were widely seen as providing a religious sanction for the Exhibition. This chapter also draws attention to such publications as James Emerton's Moral and Religious Guide to the Great Exhibition and the competition with a £100 prize for an essay that supported the Exhibition from a religious perspective.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
This chapter charts the immense efforts made by several religious organizations, including missionary societies, to engage with the large numbers of visitors expected in London, Their activities ...
More
This chapter charts the immense efforts made by several religious organizations, including missionary societies, to engage with the large numbers of visitors expected in London, Their activities included additional services and lectures, the opening of book depositories close to Hyde Park, the preparation of tracts, some of which were published in several languages, and the hiring of extra missionaries and colporteurs to distribute tracts. Special evangelical services were held at Exeter Hall attracting audiences of 3‐4000. While the Bishop of London laid plans to welcome visiting Anglicans to the metropolis, the main evangelical organizations went into top gear with the intention of saving souls. This chapter also examines how the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Religious Tract Society managed to obtain space inside the Crystal Palace, but only after much controversy.Less
This chapter charts the immense efforts made by several religious organizations, including missionary societies, to engage with the large numbers of visitors expected in London, Their activities included additional services and lectures, the opening of book depositories close to Hyde Park, the preparation of tracts, some of which were published in several languages, and the hiring of extra missionaries and colporteurs to distribute tracts. Special evangelical services were held at Exeter Hall attracting audiences of 3‐4000. While the Bishop of London laid plans to welcome visiting Anglicans to the metropolis, the main evangelical organizations went into top gear with the intention of saving souls. This chapter also examines how the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Religious Tract Society managed to obtain space inside the Crystal Palace, but only after much controversy.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
While many religious writers praised Paxton's innovative design, often likening it to a temple or the modern equivalent of a medieval cathedral, High Churchmen and Roman Catholics abhorred the ...
More
While many religious writers praised Paxton's innovative design, often likening it to a temple or the modern equivalent of a medieval cathedral, High Churchmen and Roman Catholics abhorred the design, comparing it most unfavourably to the neo‐Gothic style then in vogue for ecclesiastical and public buildings. Certain exhibits also proved controversial, none more so than Pugin's contributions to the Medieval Court, which were often seen as importing Catholic devices into the very heart of the Exhibition. This chapter centres on the religious controversies surrounding the Crystal Palace and its contents in order to show that it was a highly contested space and that protagonists across the religious spectrum endowed it with different spiritual meanings.Less
While many religious writers praised Paxton's innovative design, often likening it to a temple or the modern equivalent of a medieval cathedral, High Churchmen and Roman Catholics abhorred the design, comparing it most unfavourably to the neo‐Gothic style then in vogue for ecclesiastical and public buildings. Certain exhibits also proved controversial, none more so than Pugin's contributions to the Medieval Court, which were often seen as importing Catholic devices into the very heart of the Exhibition. This chapter centres on the religious controversies surrounding the Crystal Palace and its contents in order to show that it was a highly contested space and that protagonists across the religious spectrum endowed it with different spiritual meanings.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
One of the main issues of contention among religious writers was whether and to what extent the outwardly worldly Exhibition, with its extensive displays of material artefacts, could be reconciled ...
More
One of the main issues of contention among religious writers was whether and to what extent the outwardly worldly Exhibition, with its extensive displays of material artefacts, could be reconciled with the other‐worldliness of Christianity and especially its promise of a future life beyond the grave. This chapter examines how Christians representing a wide range of religious positions engaged—and sometimes tried to resolve—this apparent contradiction. Arguments from design were utilized by many Christians to render the Exhibition religiously acceptable by portraying the objects on display—even man‐made artefacts—as ultimately designed by God. However, while some evangelicals disparaged the objects on display in the Crystal Palace as insignificant when compared with the far more pressing issue of man's salvation, others welcomed the Exhibition as a divinely ordained event.Less
One of the main issues of contention among religious writers was whether and to what extent the outwardly worldly Exhibition, with its extensive displays of material artefacts, could be reconciled with the other‐worldliness of Christianity and especially its promise of a future life beyond the grave. This chapter examines how Christians representing a wide range of religious positions engaged—and sometimes tried to resolve—this apparent contradiction. Arguments from design were utilized by many Christians to render the Exhibition religiously acceptable by portraying the objects on display—even man‐made artefacts—as ultimately designed by God. However, while some evangelicals disparaged the objects on display in the Crystal Palace as insignificant when compared with the far more pressing issue of man's salvation, others welcomed the Exhibition as a divinely ordained event.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
This chapter shows how the social and political concerns of Catholics, secularists, and Jews influenced their perceptions of the Exhibition. Just as some Protestants perceived the Exhibition as a ...
More
This chapter shows how the social and political concerns of Catholics, secularists, and Jews influenced their perceptions of the Exhibition. Just as some Protestants perceived the Exhibition as a plot by the Papacy, Catholics were prone to criticize the Exhibition as part of an avowed strategy by Protestants to undermine Catholicism. The Exhibition was similarly criticized by the more radical freethinkers and secularists as a capitalist enterprise that perpetuated the oppression of the working classes. However, the Owenites welcomed it as an opportunity to spread their own socialist philosophy. By contrast, the Anglo‐Jewish community evoked the success of Jewish exhibitors in order to refute the view held by many Christians that Jews were inferior.Less
This chapter shows how the social and political concerns of Catholics, secularists, and Jews influenced their perceptions of the Exhibition. Just as some Protestants perceived the Exhibition as a plot by the Papacy, Catholics were prone to criticize the Exhibition as part of an avowed strategy by Protestants to undermine Catholicism. The Exhibition was similarly criticized by the more radical freethinkers and secularists as a capitalist enterprise that perpetuated the oppression of the working classes. However, the Owenites welcomed it as an opportunity to spread their own socialist philosophy. By contrast, the Anglo‐Jewish community evoked the success of Jewish exhibitors in order to refute the view held by many Christians that Jews were inferior.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
This chapter focuses on the optimistic Christians who envisaged the Exhibition as the herald of a better world. The first section shows that the dispersion at Babel (Gen. 11:1‐9) was seen by ...
More
This chapter focuses on the optimistic Christians who envisaged the Exhibition as the herald of a better world. The first section shows that the dispersion at Babel (Gen. 11:1‐9) was seen by supporters of the Exhibition as conferring positive historical significance on contemporary events. Subsequently there is discussion of those religious writers who interpreted the gathering of people from many nations at the Exhibition as a sign of human progress and improvement. Congregationalists in particular conceived of a new reign of Christianity leading to a world order in which all people would develop higher moral sensibilities, live in harmony, and ultimately achieve salvation. In the final two sections the connections between the Exhibition, internationalism, and pacifism are examined, especially through the well‐attended Peace Congress held in London contemporaneously with the Exhibition.Less
This chapter focuses on the optimistic Christians who envisaged the Exhibition as the herald of a better world. The first section shows that the dispersion at Babel (Gen. 11:1‐9) was seen by supporters of the Exhibition as conferring positive historical significance on contemporary events. Subsequently there is discussion of those religious writers who interpreted the gathering of people from many nations at the Exhibition as a sign of human progress and improvement. Congregationalists in particular conceived of a new reign of Christianity leading to a world order in which all people would develop higher moral sensibilities, live in harmony, and ultimately achieve salvation. In the final two sections the connections between the Exhibition, internationalism, and pacifism are examined, especially through the well‐attended Peace Congress held in London contemporaneously with the Exhibition.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
The first half of this chapter addresses the role of religion in the closing ceremonies and how the religious periodical press assessed the place of the Exhibition in contemporary history. In the ...
More
The first half of this chapter addresses the role of religion in the closing ceremonies and how the religious periodical press assessed the place of the Exhibition in contemporary history. In the second half the responses of the various Christian sects and denominations are reviewed in order to show that although some religious groups were among the Exhibition's sternest critics, others (especially, Congregationalists, Quakers, and Broad Anglicans) were among its most ardent supporters. This diversity is important in showing that there was no single ‘Christian response’ to the Exhibition. Overall it is argued that religion was a highly significant factor in understanding contemporary responses to the most prominent event of the mid‐nineteenth century.Less
The first half of this chapter addresses the role of religion in the closing ceremonies and how the religious periodical press assessed the place of the Exhibition in contemporary history. In the second half the responses of the various Christian sects and denominations are reviewed in order to show that although some religious groups were among the Exhibition's sternest critics, others (especially, Congregationalists, Quakers, and Broad Anglicans) were among its most ardent supporters. This diversity is important in showing that there was no single ‘Christian response’ to the Exhibition. Overall it is argued that religion was a highly significant factor in understanding contemporary responses to the most prominent event of the mid‐nineteenth century.
