2-979-572 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition at Coimbatore, Madras Presidency, South India, 1857. 'The magnificent example of the Great Exhibition of 1851 appears to have reached every portion of the civilised world; and in many distant lands to have been nobly imitated...The principal building was...a complete cocoanut palace. The pillars that supported the building were the stems of the tree, and the roof and walls were composed of its leaves. At one end of the building was a long dais, in which the Europeans and the better class of natives were collected. This was adorned in the most gorgeous Oriental style...The Exhibition lasted four days. Three days the crowd had admission, and the fourth day was devoted to the native ladies, whose prejudices will not allow of their appearing in public'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.