The Crystal Palace And the Great Exhibition ― Science, Art And Productive Industry, the History of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851

This is a reprint of a 2002 book. Britain's Crystal Palace was built for the Universal Exhibition of the Work of All Nations (known to the British as the Great Exhibition) of 1851, and has since then become a national icon. Urban historian Hobhouse tells of the formation of the Royal Commission, an organization that was created to run the Exhibition. The Commission was intended to dissolve once its work was complete, but did not: it still exists today, and Hobhouse herself is a former Commissioner. This book relates the complex story of how the Commission went on to play a leading role in art and science promotion and education in Britain. The book includes over 80 black & white plates, as well as several color plates. Annotation c2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Hermione Hobhouse was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she read Modern History. By profession she is an urban historian and architectural journalist, and latterly a senior civil servant working for the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England. She taught at the Architectural Association School in London from 1973-1978 and has lectured extensively on London town planning and urban history, Victorian architecture, and on Prince Albert, in England, the United States and South Africa. From 1976-1982 she was Secretary of the Victorian Society. She has written several books on London and managed and contributed to the Survey of London, of which she was General Editor for eleven years from 1983, retiring in 1994. She is a member of the Council of the National Trust, a former Commissioner of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, an Honorary Vice-President of the Council of the Royal Albert Hall, an Honorary Fellow of the research department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.