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 ru ... 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.