The Palace and Park by Samuel Phillips is an official guide to the rebuilt Crystal Palace at Sydenham, the great glass-and-iron exhibition building re-erected after the 1851 Great Exhibition. It describes the building’s natural history collections, its portrait gallery, and especially the Pompeian Court, one of the recreated historical courts that brought the art of past civilizations before the Victorian public.
Combining description with instruction, the book is a vivid record of one of the most ambitious popular cultural ventures of the age. It documents how the Victorians displayed art, history, and nature to a mass audience. This free EPUB download is cleanly formatted for any e-reader.