The first Shilling-day - going in

This is one of a series of eleven etchings on the theme of the Great Exhibition of 1851 which were published in a portfolio entitled 'Mayhew's Great Exhibition of 1851 - Eleven Plates - Illustrated by George Cruikshank'.

Here, Cruikshank satirises the introduction of a reduced entrance price of one shilling. In the foreground are hats, coats, boots and umbrellas, discarded by the public in the heaving scrum at the ticket booths. Despite the large sign overhead saying 'FULL', men and women clamber to get through the doors, oblivious to the debris that they have left behind. The one shilling ticket was a huge success among the industrial classes.

The Great Exhibition was the first international exhibition ever held and set the precedent for the many that followed. A lucrative and popular venture with mass appeal, it was an ideal target for satirists like Cruikshank.