William Bullock: Collections and exhibitions at the Egyptian Hall, London, 1816-25

Abstract

The influence of William Bullock and the exhibitions at his Egyptian Hall, London, upon the trajectory taken by visual imagery and the interpretation of objects has been underrated. Between 1816, when his natural history exhibitions began to lose importance, and 1825, when he left the Hall, he mounted two major exhibitions, of Lapp and Mexican artefacts, which he had collected himself. Both featured important material culture, shown within ‘realistic’ settings, and both included talks and demonstrations by local people, whom Bullock had brought to London. In these exhibitions, Bullock used innovative ideas to transform material culture from the outlandish to a field for sympathetic understanding.