Souvenir Pictures British Empire Exhibition Wembley – Impressive photo album, a souvenir from the British Empire Exhibition, published by Fleetway Press Ltd., London, 1925. A rare documentation of the largest exhibition ever held anywhere in the world at the time. Among other things, it includes a photograph of the Palestine Pavilion presented at the exhibition.
The album contains over 60 pages of high-quality photographs (printed on glossy paper), accompanied by illustrations, showing various exhibition pavilions and the crowds visiting the fair. Among them are photographs of the Palestine Pavilion, which was intended to present the economic, industrial, and agricultural development of the country under British Mandate rule. The pavilion featured products manufactured in the new Jewish colonies, such as wooden items, textile goods and fabrics, as well as plans for the construction of ports, roads, and railways to connect Palestine with the rest of the British Empire. Models of the Hejaz Railway and the extended line developed by the British were also on display, along with photographs and blueprints of new cities like Tel Aviv, renovations in historic cities such as Jerusalem, art objects from Bezalel, and more.
The album pages feature numerous photographs of the “Palace of Engineering” – the largest building in the world at the time, constructed with a steel frame; the “Canadian Pavilion” – which included an internal railway line and exhibited agricultural and industrial products; the “Indian Pavilion” – one of the exhibition’s most impressive structures, with magnificent Indian architecture; the Australia Pavilion, the New Zealand Pavilion, the Cyprus Pavilion, the Canadian Pavilion, Old London, a massive display of Noah’s Ark, the amusement park, the coal mine, the lake that ran through the exhibition grounds, and many others.
The British Empire Exhibition was held in Wembley in the years 1924 and 1925. The exhibition was opened by King George V on April 23, St. George’s Day. Fifty-eight countries took part in the exhibition, which spanned an area of approximately 90,000,000 square feet (about 4 square kilometers) in Wembley Park, London. The grounds included a small monorail that transported visitors between the various pavilions.
The exhibition was intended to showcase the achievements of the British Empire in fields such as trade, agriculture, industry, and culture, to strengthen ties between Britain and its colonies, and to encourage trade and investment within the Empire. At the time, it was the largest exhibition ever held anywhere in the world, with 26 million visitors.
Its official goal was to stimulate commerce and reinforce the connection between the countries of the Empire. The three main buildings of the exhibition were the Palaces of Industry, Engineering, and the Arts. (Most of the exhibition halls were meant to be temporary and dismantled after the event, though the Palace of Engineering and the British Government Pavilion survived until the 1970s). Originally, the exhibition was scheduled for 1924 only, but was extended through 1925 due to its great success. The iconic Wembley Stadium, which would later host the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final and the FA Cup Final, was originally constructed for this exhibition.
[64] pages. 22×14 cm. Clean and nice pages. Very good condition.
