New York Crystal Palace for the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations.

PrinterPrinted by Elijah Chapman Kellogg (American, 1811 - 1881)

PublisherPublished by Elijah Chapman Kellogg (American, 1811 - 1881)

PublisherPublished by Horace Thayer & Co. (American, 1852)

Date1853

MediumLithography; printer's ink and watercolor on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (image height x width): 8 1/4 x 12 3/4in. (21 x 32.4cm)
Sheet (height x width): 10 1/8 x 14in. (25.7 x 35.6cm)

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineGift of Samuel St. John Morgan

DescriptionA crowd of people stand in a grassy lawn in front of the Crystal Palace, a huge iron and glass building with a dome surmounted by an American flag. The flags of other countries fly from the tops of towers at the corners. Decorative motifs include round arches on slender columns. The crowd in the foreground includes a man wearing a fez and other men wearing turbans and robes, as well as men in top hats and frock coats, women in full skirts and bonnets, and small boys and girls. Newsboys, at the left and right, are selling newspapers. A man at the far right, evidently a street performer of some kind, carries a large box on his back. A coach drawn by two horses is at the left, near a man pushing what appears to be a wheelbarrow. The high stone walls of the Croton receiving reservoir at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street are in the right background.

Object number1950.202.151

NotesSubject Note: The Crystal Palace, an early example of cast-iron architecture, was erected in 1853 at the corner of 6th Avenue and 42nd Street in New York for the Great Exhibition of Art and Industry. It continued to be used for exhibitions and fairs until it burned in 1857. (Finlay 1/6/2005)

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