The Shows of LondonHarvard University Press, 1978 - 553 pages A berserk elephant gunned down in the heart of London, a machine for composing Latin hexameters, and the original rock band (1841)--these are but three of the sights that London curiosity-seekers from every walk of life paid to see from the Elizabethan era to the mid-Victorian period. Examining hundreds of the wonderfully varied exhibitions that culminated in the Crystal Palace of 1851, this generously illustrated book sheds light on a vast and colorful expanse of English social history that has thus far remained wholly unsurveyed. Drawing on a wealth of never-before-used information, Mr. Altick traces London exhibitions as they evolved from the display of relics in pre-Reformation churches, through the collections of eighteenth-century virtuosi, to the first science museums and public art galleries. He also narrates for the first time the history of the panorama and diorama as an influential genre of nineteenth-century popular art. At every point, the London shows are linked to the prevailing intellectual atmosphere and to trends in public taste. The material is fresh and fascinating; the range--from freaks to popular science, from the funeral effigies at Westminster Abbey to Madame Tussaud's waxworks--impressive. Like the exhibitions that best served the Victorian ideal of mass culture, The Shows of London is both entertaining and informative. |
Table des matières
Introduction | 1 |
16001750 | 5 |
MonsterMongers and Other Retailers of Strange Sights | 34 |
Waxwork and Clockwork | 50 |
Exhibitions of Mechanical Ingenuity | 64 |
Water Fire Air and a Celestial Bed | 77 |
The Sights and Resorts of EighteenthCentury London | 87 |
Art on Display | 99 |
The Ancient and the Exotic | 288 |
Life and Death in the Animal Kingdom | 302 |
Zoos and Pleasure Gardens | 317 |
The Waxen and the Fleshly | 332 |
More Mechanical Ingenuity | 350 |
The Two Faces of Science | 363 |
Technology for the Million | 375 |
Artifacts and Models | 390 |
The Eidophusikon | 117 |
The Panorama in Leicester Square | 128 |
A Panorama in a Pleasure Dome | 141 |
The Diorama | 163 |
Topics of the Times | 173 |
The Theatrical Art of the Panorama | 184 |
Panoramas in Motion | 198 |
Scenes Optical Mechanical and Spectral | 211 |
Exhibitions and London Life | 221 |
William Bullock and the Egyptian Hall | 235 |
Freaks in the Age of Improvement | 253 |
The Noble Savage Reconsidered | 268 |
Fine Art for the People | 404 |
Inside the Exhibition Business | 420 |
National Monuments | 434 |
1851 | 455 |
New Patterns of Life and the Decline of the Panorama | 470 |
The Old Order Changeth | 483 |
Epilogue | 504 |
Short Forms of Citation | 512 |
Notes | 513 |
541 | |