The Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester, 1857.

A major concern of mid-Victorian Britain was the relationship between art and industry. One of the key moments in this debate, often overlooked, was the Art Treasures Exhibition held in Manchester in 1857. The posthumous publication of Francis Haskell's Epbemeral Museum last year (1) has made it clear that the issues raised by this display of fine art in Britain's industrial heartland (see Pl. V) deserve closer inspection.

The French social commentator Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) visited the great mill town of Manchester in 1835 and was appalled by what he found:

A sort of black smoke covers the city .... Under this half-daylight 500,000 human beings are ceaselessly at work .... From this foul drain, the greatest stream of human industry flows out to fertilise the world. (2)

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In 1856 the leading citizens of Manchester shocked the British establishment by suggesting that they hold a massive are exhibition in the city. They had the effrontery to ask the greatest noble families in the land to lend their paintings, sculpture, watercolors, metalwork, ceramics, and jewelry. However, they did have the good sense to promise to build the exhibition hall well out of the polluted prevailing winds. The initial response was not encouraging. William Cavendish (1808- 1891), seventh duke of Devonshire, rather acidly remarked: "What in the world do you want with art in Manchester? Why can't you stick to your cotton spinning? (3) And he refused to lend.

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Despite its detractors, the Art Treasures Exhibition was a great success. More than one million visitors came by road or rail to the Old Trafford site. On a single day the show was seen by the duke of Wellington, the bishop of Oxford, Florence Nightingale, and the painter David Roberts. Working-class visitors trooped through by the thousands and, despite the fears of some of the lenders, behaved themselves.