'Why Should Working Men Visit the Exhibition?': Workers and the Great Exhibition and the Ethos of Industrialism

The Exhibition provided a national focus and a common destination and motivation for visitors. The very idea of the World Exhibition may have been suggested by the sentiments advocated and popularized by Julian Harney and other advanced proletarian spokesmen. Plans for a Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations to be held in London were announced in 1850. The exhibition presented a golden opportunity for Londoners with initiative to improve their finances, perhaps too easy an opportunity. Some commentators feared not for London with this influx of strangers of doubtful respectability but for the safety of the visitors at the mercy of worldly Londoners. Working-class involvement in all aspects of the Exhibition showed that the risk of insurrection was over and an era of incorporation, collaboration and reformist politics had commenced. Workers had come to terms with their status as wage labourers and adapted themselves culturally and politically to the ethos of industrialization.