3-021-266 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of the South London Working Classes' Industrial Exhibition, Lambeth Baths, 1869. Scene at 'The spacious interior...had been decorated with festoons of flowers,...and specimens of art-workmanship in conspicuous positions. So rigidly have the committee enforced the rule that the contributions must be the handiwork of persons belonging bona fide to the working classes that there is only one article in the exhibition regarding which the conditions have been relaxed. This is an exquisite piece of wood carving...executed by a Greek monk on Mount Athos...The specimens shown are very numerous, comprising models, carvings, sculpture, oil paintings, water colours, pen-and- ink and crayon sketches, machinery and metal work, models of vessels, cabinetwork, fabrics and fancy work, and various articles which cannot be included under any specific class. The general character of the exhibition affords evidence that the promoters of it have made utility the standard of merit. At the opening ceremony the president, Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., took the chair...prizes of 5 gs. and 2gs. - the one for the best design for an exhibition medal, the other for the design of a certificate card - were presented to Miss Marian Brook and to Miss Helen Arundel Miles'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.