Crystal Palace game

The principles of teaching children through play had been first explored in France in the mid 17 th century to teach the young Louis XIV. Writing in England in 1693, John Locke also advocated the use of play to encourage learning. English book publishers followed this idea and it was boosted again in the late 18 th century when Abbé Gaultier fled France during the French Revolution and founded a school in England and began to publish books of games for children. These were designed to teach a multitude of subjects, but geography was among the most popular as map makers were able to utilise their maps to produce games and dissected puzzles.

This practise continued throughout the 19 th century, in England France and elsewhere in Europe. By the mid 19 th century when the British Empire had spread around the world, there were a variety of games that extolled British pluck and ingenuity. The Great Exhibition which opened in 1851 at the Crystal Palace was conceived as a show case for the culture and productions of Britain and her colonies. The exhibition itself spawned a variety of souvenirs. Smith Evans, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, published maps of world shipping routes; it would have been an easy task for him to design an exciting game of world travel which highlighted the achievements of the Empire.

The Crystal Palace game features an attractive border of vignettes of the countries to be visited, from the polar regions, to India and Africa. The map itself is also dotted with scenes including the discovery of gold in Australia, the death of Captain Cook, and the marooning of Alexander Selkirk on the Island of Juan Fernandez, a story which inspired the writing of Robinson Crusoe . At the top left hand corner of the game is a representation of the Crystal Palace itself and on the right a scene of the opening of the Great Exhibition by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Conceived by prince Albert, The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in Hyde Park in London in the specially constructed Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace was originally designed by Sir Joseph Paxton in only 10 days and was a huge iron goliath with over a million feet of glass. The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London was conceived to symbolize the industrial, military and economic superiority of Great Britain.

The game has been reproduced as a free handout for children at the South Australian Maritime Museum's exhibition South Australia on the map 1606-2006 .

Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.

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