Newpaper Reproduction of the National Art Treasures Exhibition Engraving

Summary

A view of an opening ceremony inside the Art Treasures exhibition building erected in Manchester in 1857. The iron-and-glass arches create a vast interior, in which can be seen a spacious dias, on which a deferential Thomas Fairbairn is reading to a standing Prince Albert. Behind them a huge pipe organ can be seen below the legend 'TO WAKE THE SOUL WITH TENDER STROKES OF ART'. The hall and balconies are crowded with an audience of the great and the good, the men bareheaded and the women in flounces and bonnets.