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Key facts
| Type | Weekly Classes |
|---|---|
| Location | Oxford |
| Address | Ewert House Ewert Place Summertown Oxford |
| Dates | Thu 4 Oct to Thu 6 Dec 2012 Day: Thursday Time of meeting: 10.30am-12.30pm Number of meetings: 10 |
| Subject area(s) | History |
| CATS points | 10 |
| Fees | From £165.00 |
| Application status | Course ended |
| Course code | O12P657HIW |
| Course contact | If you have any questions about this course, please email ppweekly@conted.ox.ac.uk. |
Overview
What were the motives that led the organisers to stage these two national exhibitions ? We will examine the motives and aspirations that lay behind these extraordinary events that afford two unique snapshots of the state of Britain a century apart.Description
What were the motives that led the organisers to stage these two national exhibitions? What were the events leading up to them, and how were they viewed by the visitors? We will examine the motives and aspirations that lay behind these two extraordinary events that afford two unique snapshots of the state of Britain a century apart. Two of London’s great museums, the Science Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, were the result of the Great Exhibition of 1851 which had highlighted the country’s need for better education in the new science-based technologies and applied art, and which influenced the Arts & Crafts Movement (1860-1910). A period of unprecedented scientific and technological development followed which was showcased in the Festival in Britain (1951), initially suggested by the Royal Society of Arts to promote the improvement of design in the products of British industry, and to dispel the drabness of the war years.Programme details
Week 1: Introduction: National and International Exhibitions in Victorian Britain. The Role of the Mechanics’ Institutes and the Royal Society of ArtsWeek 2: The Great Exhibition of 1851: a showcase of the Sciences and the Arts in Great Britain and the Empire.
Week 3: The Founding of the Science Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. The evolution of science-based technologies and technology-based arts.
Week 4: From Victorian terrace to social housing: the Industrial Revolution and the 'democratisation' of housing. Architecture in the service of the ‘working classes’.
Week 5: War, Austerity and a New Dawn: science and technology at war and at peace.
Week 6: Beacon for Change: the Festival of Britain 1951, 'culture' and 'politics' and national identity.
Week 7: The 'Dome of Discovery': pattern and science at the Festival and the role of the Council of Industrial Design.
Week 8: The Lion and the Unicorn: symbolic architecture for a new age.
Week 9: Great Expectations: the dream of unlimited energy and unlimited wealth. The stuff of Science Fiction.
Week 10: Conclusion: the Festival and its legacy – 'Towards a New Britain'.
Background Reading:
Banham, M. & Hillier B., Tonic to the Nation: Festival of Britain, 1951 (Thames & Hudson, 1976)
Briggs, Asa, Iron Bridge to Crystal Palace (Thames & Hudson, 1979)
Cloag, J., Victorian Comfort: A Social History of Design 1830-1900 ( David & Charles, 1973)
Goodden, Henrietta, The Lion and The Unicorn: Symbolic Architecture for the Festival of Britain, 1951 (Unicorn Press, 2011)
Jackson, Lesley, From Atoms to Patterns: Crystal Structure Designs from the 1951 (Festival of Britain Richard Dennis, 2008)
Leapman, Michael, The World for a Shilling: How the Great Exhibition of 1851 Shaped a Nation (Headline Book Publishing, 2001)
Turner, Barry, Beacon for Change: How the 1951 Festival of Britain Shaped the Modern Age (Aurum Press, 2011)
Staff
Dr Willem D Hackmann
Role: Tutor
The tutor has given public and adult courses on the history of science and technology since the early seventies. His background is in historical...more
Course aims
Course Aim:To gain an understanding of the complex factors (including political, technological and social) that brought about the creation of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Festival of Britain of 1951, and the historical insights that can be gained from comparing such events.
Course Objectives:
1.To study the main political, scientific and technological factors which led to the Great Exhibition and the Festival of Britain,
and the role of the ideas about the efficacy of such exhibitions on the national psyche.
2. To examine the pictorial and descriptive images of these two events as a means of analyzing contemporary attitudes.
3.To explore the legacy of the attitudes and aspirations of the Great Exhibition on the nineteenth century and of the Festival of Britain on our own century.
Assessment methods
Students will be provided with a print out of each session’s PowerPoint presentation (these proved to be a highly successful and much appreciated in previous classes). These provide the basis for the group discussions and are useful for when the student plan their reading and/or their essays or class presentations. Students with either provide four brief essays of 250 words each (Option A) a detailed essay of 1000 words, or a class presentation to prepared notes (Option B).Teaching methods
Teaching will consists of a highly illustrated series of ‘informal’ PowerPoint presentations. Students will be encouraged to share their opinions in class discussions. An important aspect will be the visual material presented to the class for historical analysis. Students will be encouraged to read introductory texts in preparation for the course and for the individual sessions. Students will also be encouraged to read more specialist books in pursuit of their own particular interests.Teaching outcomes
1. Have a more sophisticated understanding of historical visual material2. Appreciate the cultural context of both art and science
3. Appreciate the complex relationship between science and industrial innovations
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