A Young Charles Dickens Dispatches a Writer to Cover the Great Exhibition of 1853
This letter comes in the same year as the very first public reading of one of his works
On May 1, 1851, the ‘Great Exhibition’ was opened at Crystal Palace in London and was the first in a series of world’s fairs that became a popular feature of the 19th and 20th centuries. In January 1853, the Committee of the Saddleworth Mechanics’ and Literary Institute decided to hold an “…exhibition...
On May 1, 1851, the ‘Great Exhibition’ was opened at Crystal Palace in London and was the first in a series of world’s fairs that became a popular feature of the 19th and 20th centuries. In January 1853, the Committee of the Saddleworth Mechanics’ and Literary Institute decided to hold an “…exhibition of antiquities, fine arts, models of machines, and such other works of industry and art as would be attractive and instructive to the public”.
The exhibition opened to great popularity in August 1853, and such was the success that the dates were extended; it was estimated by the end more than 15,000 people had visited.
News of Saddleworth’s ’Great’ Exhibition spread and an article appeared in ‘Household Words’, a contemporary magazine published by Charles Dickens. William Allingham was a prominent poet and friend of Dickens.
Autograph letter signed, on his Household Words letterhead, London, the 16th of July, 1853, to Allingham. “I write hastily to say that I retain the poems with pleasure.
“Also that the exhibition subject is quite open. It would require to be fancifully and originally treated but that requisite is quite in your say.”
Allingham did go to and cover the exhibition, giving a detailed account.
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