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- Title
Ballads and Balloon Ascents: Reconnecting the Popular and the Didactic in 1851.
- Authors
BRIGGS, JO
- Abstract
At just after six in the evening on 16 June 1851, a balloon carrying two passengers narrowly avoided crashing into the transept of the Crystal Palace. This near-disastrous balloon ascent was the result of just one of the popular entertainments that sprang up to capitalize on the crowds of visitors to the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in London in 1851. Despite the fact that on this occasion popular entertainment and didactic recreation almost literally collided, histories of the Exhibition have kept the two separate. It is notable that today the Great Exhibition is most often studied through sources such as Dickinson's Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Fxhibition of 1851 (1852), the Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue (1851), or the Illustrated London News, all aimed at middle-class audiences. However, cheap broadside ballads also commented on the Exhibition and offer alternative perspectives on the event. This paper focuses on these neglected sources and reads them within a broader network of literary and visual sources.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; ENGLAND; GREAT Exhibition (1851 : London, England); ENGLISH didactic literature; HISTORY of exhibitions; SOCIAL integration; SOCIAL classes; POPULAR culture; ILLUSTRATED London News (Periodical); VICTORIAN Period, Great Britain, 1837-1901; NINETEENTH century; HISTORY; ENGLISH literature; ENGLISH ballads; LITERARY criticism; ENGLISH music; MUSIC history
- Publication
Victorian Studies, 2013, Vol 55, Issue 2, p253
- ISSN
0042-5222
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2979/victorianstudies.55.2.253