Interior View of the Crystal Palace Built for the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Crystal Palace was a spectacular achievement in engineering, prefabricated from three hundred thousand sheets of glass. With almost fifteen thousand exhibitors, the event constituted the first international industrial exhibition, showcasing manufactured products from Britain, its empire, and the rest of the world. Later, the building was disassembled and moved to another site in London, where it stood until destroyed by fire in 1936.
(Engraved by William Simpson [1832–1899] from an original by J. McNevin, color lithograph/London Metropolitan Archives, City of London, UK/Bridgeman Images)