The making of the South Kensington Museum II: Collecting modern manufactures: 1851 and the Great Exhibition

Abstract

This article examines the assumption that acquisitions made from the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations defined the collectons of the newly founded Sorth Kensington Museum. With the benefit of the information about acquisitions made for the Government Schools of Design, and a close reading of diaries and letters written by A. W. N. Pugin and Henry Cole, it is apparent that the principles governing acquisition policy were established well in advance of the exhibition, and continued to drive decision‐making by the Committee set up to select the purchases from the exhibition.