The Coalbrookdale Dome, from "Recollections of the Great Exhibition, 1851"
Not on view
At the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, held in London in 1851, displays of art and manufacture were shown at the Crystal Palace, a specially-built glass and iron building in Hyde park designed by Joseph Paxton. Between May and October more than six million visitors flocked to view thousands of objects organized by theme and place of origin at the first world’s fair. This title page represents an elaborate cast iron structure named for the Shropshire village where a smelting process foundational to the industrial revolution was developed. British visitors and foreign dignitaries admire John Bell's statue of Shakespeare placed beneath a decorative dome adorned with Cupid and eagles. Both Lloyd Brothers and Simkin, Marshall & Co. are cited as publishers, but it was the former who teamed with printers Day & Son to create the hand-colored set of twenty-four lithographs that offered well-to-do visitors a detailed and beautifully produced souvenir.
