‘An illustrated encyclopaedia of this great and varied universe’: Mapping the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854–1936

In this seminar, Madeline Hewitson will examine a number of ground plans of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, a private enterprise based on the Great Exhibition of 1851 which sat at the intersection of Victorian arts education and the entertainment industry. These ground plans reveal the Palace curators' intricate strategies for educating visitors about the history of empires and the interlinked progress of art and design.