In Focus: The 1853 New York Crystal Palace

The New York Crystal Palace of 1853 (formally the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations) was the first world fair held in the United States, housed in an impressive cast-iron structure on the site of Bryant Park. Like its namesake in London, the Crystal Palace showcased an enormous range of manufactured consumer goods and technological marvels of the age. We will explore the Crystal Palace alongside competing venues including A.T. Stewart’s Marble Palace, daguerreian “saloons,” and P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, to better understand how New York became a center of urban culture and consumption. Students in this course will develop an experimental Focus Gallery exhibition on this topic. We will work to locate and research surviving objects that were featured in the 1853 exhibition, along with contemporary souvenirs, publications, lithographs, daguerreotypes, stereoviews, and wood engravings that diffused images and/or memories of the event. We will consider what the theme of the Focus Gallery exhibition should be, what materials should be displayed, and how to craft an exhibition that best communicates our understanding of the commercial culture of nineteenth-century New York. We will also be working on accompanying digital components, such as in-gallery interactives and a digital publication. 3 credits.