View of the south side from near the Princes Gate, looking west

The first international exhibition of manufacture ever held, the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park was opened to the public on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria.

The Exhibition was arranged by the Prince Consort, Prince Albert, who supervised the plans, and Sir Henry Cole, Chairman of the Society of Arts and a key promoter and administrator of the Exhibition. Cole was to later become the first director of the South Kensington Museum (later divided into the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum).

The huge crowds that attended the opening were sustained throughout the Exhibition's duration and it proved a popular, as well as a commercial, success. In this print, one of several produced to commemorate the event, people have gathered in droves outside Crystal Palace, the glass and iron structure built by Joseph Paxton especially for the Exhibition. The gigantic building dominates the print's composition, towering over the crowds below. It is viewed from the south side by people mingling near the Princes' Gate, along a tree-lined promenade.

The Exhibition, which closed in Hyde Park on 15 October 1851, set the precedent for the many international exhibitions which followed.