Of all the means used to convince people that they should have one product or another, exhibiting is the most powerful and persuasive method, because it combines all the marketing functions and appeals to all human senses.
Figure 1. Victorian Commission 1872 cover for the London exhibition of 1873
The Trade Exhibitions stand as a paradigm of the rise of trade between England (and Europe) and Australia, and indeed the development of the major cities here in the second half of the nineteenth, and early part of the twentieth century. Three international Exhibitions established Australia as a trading nation – Sydney 1879, Melbourne 1880 and 1888. The first Trade Ship to SE Asia – NIEUW HOLLAND – in 1933 had a singular impact, for it led to the development of Australia’s consular and trade commissioner services.
Figure 2. Queensland Exhibition cover 8 September 1896 to England.
The Origination of Trade Exhibitions
Exhibitions record Australia’s development, for they mirrored trade, and this dissertation will endeavour to highlight some of the strategic trade exhibitions that Australia and the Colonies have participated in both domestically and internationally. But don’t think that the Colonies participated on an equal basis or that they cooperated in their involvement when entering the same overseas events. They did not and were in fact very competitive. All of the Colonies vied for world attention with each mounting its own court within the British Pavilion.
According to Judith McKay1 Victoria and NSW made valiant stands for united action at the Philadelphia
Figure 3. British Court to MIE cover 21 March 1882 to Venice, Italian postage due. Front & back.
Viewed in their widest sense as displays of industries and art, trade exhibitions are of ancient date. The origin of trade fairs is important historically, for it is recorded in the Old Testament book of Esther that King Ahasuerus (521 BC) showed “the riches of his kingdom … for a hundred and eighty days.” Fairs are recorded through the Greek and Roman eras, but lapsed until revived during the 13th century in Venice. From these, town market fairs developed, and gradually took on a more regular, substantial and then an international form. In many parts of Europe great periodic fairs and national fetes, exhibiting on a large scale products of every kind collected from surrounding areas, were Industrial Exhibitions in all but name. But the Industrial Exhibition as now understood began in France in 1797, and owed its suggestion and creation to the ‘tremendous spasm of the Revolution’. Between then and 1849 no fewer than eleven Industrial Exhibitions were held in Paris; gradually increasing in scale, with the first open for 3 days with 110 exhibitors and the last open for 2 months with 4,494 exhibitors. However, such exhibitions were essentially local, based upon a county or national character.
Figure 4. Queensland Commission to MIE cover of 2 Nov 1880 to New York Front & back.
The idea of an International Exhibition encompassing all countries originated in England in 1851, when focus was provided by the British Society of Arts, and impetus from Prince Albert who initiated “The Great Exhibition of the Works of All Nations”. It was held at the Crystal Palace in London from May to October 1851. One of the strategic aims of Prince Albert in staging this exhibition was to reconcile art and industry. The realisation that there had become a separation of art and industry in the 1840s and 1850s with the effect that handicrafts were disappearing, and that art and industry were definitely separating. Manufactured goods were stamped out in Manchester and Liverpool and everywhere else in the Midlands, and there was the realisation that something was being lost. Thus the fine arts took on a significant part of this exhibition and every subsequent exhibition until the early 1900s. And so a new era in international exhibition history began. Since 1851, international exhibitions have been held at frequent intervals in many parts of the world, while industrial exhibitions [called in Australia, Intercolonial or Juvenile exhibitions], smaller in scale and more local in character, have been innumerable.
Immediately following the London exhibition, and essentially inspired by it, great international exhibitions were held in Dublin [1853], New York [1853-54], Paris [1855], London [1862], Dublin [1865], Paris [1867], London [1871-74], Vienna [1873], Philadelphia [1876] and Paris the same year.
Thereafter, they followed about a yearly timeframe in the major capitals as Paris [1878], Sydney [79], Melbourne [80-81], Atlanta [81], Amsterdam [83], Boston [83], Calcutta [83-4], Louisville [83], New Orleans [84], Antwerp [85], Edinburgh [86], London [86], Adelaide [87], Barcelona [88], Glasgow [88], Melbourne [88-89], Paris [89], Dunedin [89-90], Kingston [91], Chicago [93], Antwerp and San Francisco [94], Hobart [94-95], Atlanta [95], Brussels, Guatemala, Nashville, and Stockholm [97], Omaha [98] and at the beginning of the new century in Paris for (1900)2. As well, they continued to be held on a continuing basis at determined times into the 20th century.
Since then, international exhibitions have been a feature of the commercial and industrial life of all the significant manufacturing and producing countries. Owing to their frequency, the organisers of such exhibitions were confronted with a problem of ever-increasing difficulty – that of selecting a date, which would not clash with that of a similar event elsewhere, and which would secure the interest and full cooperation of countries from which adequate representation was expected. When the two factors of exhibition frequency and the considerable costs of staging such events are taken into account, it’s no wonder that some of the country specific organising officials were becoming concerned at the necessity for some form of control to regulate the occurrence of international exhibitions.
The first internationally-agreed document created to bring some form of organisation to such event activity, appears to be an unofficial memorandum drawn up and signed by Henry Cole [an assistant Keeper at the Public Records Office in London] and five of the other foreign commissioners to the Paris Exposition of 1867. Bearing in mind that exhibitions were staged over a six-month period, they decided that the scope and duration of these gigantic events should be controlled, that they should be held in rotation in various capitals, and that, although covering essentially the same artistic and product criteria, they should arrange their exhibits by specific class rather than nationality, with far more careful selection and consideration of the quality of the items.
The other factor was cost. Of the 40 international exhibitions held in Great Britain, Eire, USA, France, Austria, Australia, Holland, India, Belgium, Spain, New Zealand, the Caribbean and Sweden from 1851 to 1900, only 19 recovered expenses or made a profit.
It was not until 1912 that a formal diplomatic meeting took place and the International Convention of Berlin was signed by 15 countries. Unfortunately the First World War effectively ended the agreement. Nothing further was done until 1928 when 31 countries met in Paris and produced the “Convention Regarding International Exhibitions”, which is the basis of present agreements. The Bureau International des Expositions was established in 1931 in Paris3.
Olympic Games Inception
The first Games were held in Athens in 1896. However, the organisers of the 1900 Paris event thought that it might be a good idea to combine the second modern Olympic Games in the six-month programme. Competitive events ranged from equestrian to ballooning, from tennis and croquet to motorcycle and automobile racing4. Whilst this exhibition ran from 15 April to 12 November, the Games were held from 20 May to 28 October, and appear to have been comfortably well spread as public drawcards to the exhibition. There are a number of covers in the collection that relate to the 1900 Games.
The third Games were held during the St Louis Exhibition and centred on one week from 29 August to 3 September 1904. Athletes competed as individuals or as members of athletic clubs since national teams had not as yet been developed5. The fourth Games occurred in London at the Franco-British Exhibition during July 1908. Over 2000 competitors from twenty-two countries participated in twenty sports. Apart from the marathon, all events took place in the specially built stadium so as to maximize the benefits for both ventures in capturing an audience6.
These were the only occasions when Exhibitions and Games were concurrent.
1. “Queensland at Wold Expositions: 1862-1988” CQUP 2004
2. Findling John [1990] “Historical Dictionary of World’s Fairs and Expositions 1851-1988” Greenwood Press, London
3. Allwood John [1977] “The Great Exhibitions” Macmillan Publishing NY & Studio Vista, London
4. J Findling: “Historical Dictionary of World Fairs & Exhibitions 1851-1988” Greenwood London 1990
5. ibid
6. ibid
Brilliant and very informative article – should encourage author to publish more about Australian colonial trade exhibitions.