3-017-229 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of the Reading Industrial Exhibition, 1865. 'This exhibition...is two-fold, being partly an industrial exhibition, made up of specimens of the skill, the taste, and the ingenuity of the working-class people of that town and district; partly a fine-arts loan exhibition, to which many of the nobility and gentry have sent a great variety of precious things...When we mention that out of the 1680 articles catalogued more than 900 come from Windsor Castle and the various seats of the nobility and gentry in the county, some idea may be formed of the richness of the exhibition...The Industrial Exhibition proper has been classified under two heads: the first division contains the articles exhibited by artisans, and these, again, are subdivided into those which have reference to their own employment and those which are independent of it; the second division includes all those who are not artisans, and this is also subdivided in a manner similar to the first. To the first class money prizes will be awarded, as well as certificates of merit; to the second class medals and certificates of merit will be given'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.