Lesson video

Hello historians and welcome to today's history lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss and I'm incredibly passionate about history and I can't wait to teach you today.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains.

As well as that, someone or something to talk to would be excellent and having something to write on and write with would also be really helpful.

All right, let's get straight into today's history lesson then.

I can't wait.

In our history lesson today, we're going to be looking at a really significant event during the Victorian era, the Great Exhibition.

Our outcome will be, I can describe what the Great Exhibition was like and why it was significant.

Here are our key words for today.

The first word is invention.

Our next word is modern.

Make sure you're saying these back to me.

Then we have exhibition.

So an invention is something new that has never been created before.

And during the Victorian era there were many new inventions.

Something to do with the present or current time is described as modern.

And an exhibition is a public show of arts, crafts, products, or skills.

So we today are going to be concentrating on the Great Exhibition, which occurred during the Victorian era.

This was an exhibition, a show of modern inventions of the time.

So we are looking at the Great Exhibition.

We're going to begin by considering the progress and change in Victorian Britain and some of the new inventions which had occurred.

And then we're going to look at Prince Albert's Great Exhibition.

Prince Albert was the husband of Queen Victoria and he was one of the key organisers of the Great Exhibition, this show of wonderful modern inventions.

So let's get on and consider progress in Victorian Britain.

So Victorian Britain was a time of radical and fast change.

Many new things were invented during this time.

Inventions happen when someone has a clever idea and they make something that is brand new.

Inventions often help us do something easier or quicker.

They can improve our lives.

Sometimes they allow us to do things we couldn't even imagine before.

I'm sure you could think of some inventions.

Life would be so different if the car was never invented.

Here is an advert for a Victorian toilet.

Now, this isn't saying the Victorians invented the idea of a toilet, but they did improve and refine toilets and modernise them for the time.

In the 63 years that Queen Victoria ruled the United Kingdom, the country changed a lot.

We could say that this was a time of very radical change.

Many new modern inventions like the flushing toilets were introduced in Victorian times.

These inventions changed the way people lived forever, and in many cases, they improved people's lives.

By the end of Queen Victoria's reign, many modern inventions were part of everyday life.

Victorian people invented, to name but a few, cheese graters, potato peelers.

Two things that are very most definitely used in everyday life, aren't they? Especially when cooking.

Early types of electricity.

Electricity became incredibly important as time went on.

Lighting, heating to improve people's standards of living.

Cameras, so that we could take pictures rather than having to rely on portraits and paintings.

Phones even, and even the earliest computers.

As you can see, during the Victorian era, Victorian people were great inventors.

Here is a photo of a plaque dedicated to the Victorian inventor, Joseph Swan, the inventor of the light bulb.

I'm sure that you use light bulbs in everyday life.

Every time you flick on a switch, a light bulb will create artificial light, helping you to see when it's dark or in poorly lit areas.

So which statement here is correct? Is Lucas correct when he says inventions are always machines? Is Sam correct when he says inventions help us do things more easily? Or is Jun correct? There weren't many inventions in Victorian times.

Which statement's correct? Choose the correct statement and see if you can explain why they're correct to your partner.

Off you go.

Great job, some really great explanation there.

You've clearly been paying attention to the learning so far in this lesson as well.

So let's take each of these in turn.

Lucas says, inventions are always machines.

Hmm, an invention can be a machine, but it doesn't always have to be a machine.

Consider a potato peeler or a cheese grater.

They're manual, aren't they? You can use them with your hands.

They're not machines.

So Lucas is not correct.

Sam says, inventions help us to do things more easily.

That's the whole purpose of an invention, isn't it? It can indeed help us to do things which we couldn't have even imagined doing before, or to make our daily lives easier.

So I'm hoping you certainly agreed with Sam.

And Jun says there weren't many inventions in Victorian times.

Well, this isn't true, is it? We've looked at the Victorian era as being one of very rapid and radical change, where many new things, modern things were invented to improve people's lives and also to make the things that they did easier.

So Jun is incorrect.

So modern inventions help us to change how we do things.

Some people don't like change, but other people think change means great progress.

Interesting, there were even a group of people who before the Victorian era were opposed to the use of machines in factories.

These people were known as the Luddites.

But many people during the Victorian era saw this great change as a positive thing and saw it as progress.

Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria himself, proudly believed that inventions were great and he wanted to celebrate them.

He had a great interest in things like technology and sciences.

Here is a photo of Prince Albert taken on an early camera during the Victorian era.

Which of these was invented in Victorian times? The light bulb, the telephone, the camera, or the computer? Pause the video now and select the things that you think were invented during the Victorian era.

Consider some of those inventions we've looked at already in this lesson.

Great thinking.

Well, fascinatingly, all of these were inventions of the Victorian times.

You have the light bulb, the telephone, the camera, and the computer.

Incredible.

All of these inventions occurred during the reign of Queen Victoria during the Victorian times.

It really was an era of modern inventions and radical change.

So for our practise task now what I'd like you to do, the following inventions were all made by the Victorians.

Which invention do you think was the most important? I'd like to share your ideas with your learning partner.

The inventions are the flushing toilet, electricity and lights, the camera, the lawnmower, and the ice cream maker.

You could perhaps put them in order from most important to least important, or you could just consider which you think was the most important and why it was the most important.

You must give a full sentence reason in your answer.

I think mm was the most important Victorian invention because.

Consider the impacts that these inventions have had, even to this day.

Pause the video, off you go.

Great job, team.

Some really lovely full sentence answers there.

I love the fact that we are also using the word because to explain why we thought and give a reason as to why we thought each invention or the invention that we'd said was the most important.

So here are some examples that I'd heard from different children.

Perhaps you think the toilet was the most important.

It was cleaner to use the toilet.

So the invention of the flushing toilet meant that we could have more improved sanitation.

This child says electricity was the most important for me.

It let people light their homes.

And of course we know that electricity can be used to power all sorts of important things.

This child says, I think the camera was most important because it means we have real photographs from history.

And this is really important, isn't it? This allows us to have historical sources that are probably more accurate than say a painting or a portrait might be.

I love the fact that that child is thinking it from historical point of view.

And this child says, I love ice cream.

What would we do on a sunny day if the ice cream maker wasn't invented? So that's a more personal opinion there.

Really great reasoning, everyone.

Each invention definitely does have its pros.

So we've considered progress in Victorian Britain and the fact that this was a time of great progress in invention.

Now we're going to consider how the Victorians showed this off by looking at Prince Albert's Great Exhibition, which was a show of modern inventions of the time.

So Prince Albert, who was particularly interested in sciences and technology, wanted to organise an event for inventors from all across the world to show off their new modern inventions.

An invention such as this telescope here that you can see illustrated.

This is an illustration of a modern invention called a telescope on display at the Great Exhibition.

This was a large and powerful telescope that supported people to see further into the night sky than they ever had done before.

He decided then to organise along with other people the Great Exhibition, which was held in Hyde Park in London in 1851 during the Victorian times.

Remember that an exhibition is a show of things, and this was an exhibition of modern inventions.

This was a grand exhibition, hence the title, the Great Exhibition.

It was absolutely huge.

We're gonna look at the building that it was housed in now.

Prince Albert worked with an architect called Joseph Paxton.

An architect is someone who designs buildings.

Together, they designed the impressive glass and steel building, so two modern for the time building materials for the exhibition.

And this was called the Crystal Palace.

My turn, your turn.

The Crystal Palace was called the Crystal Palace because the majority of the building was glass.

Here we have a photo, and circled, you can see within this photo a statue of Prince Albert.

The circled part is him holding there his and Joseph Paxton's design for Crystal Palace.

So true or false? At the Great Exhibition, inventors displayed their modern inventions for people to see them.

Okay, this is a true statement.

An exhibition, remember, is a public show or display of products, skills, or art.

Inventors from all over the world went to the Great Exhibition to display their modern inventions, the things that they had created to progress mankind and to make daily life easier.

The Crystal Palace was huge.

This here is a painting of the Crystal Palace after it had been built in Hyde Park in 1851.

It was absolutely massive.

You can see here that it has for the main three different tiers, and then an arch, which created a fourth tier in the centre.

It was 39 metres tall, 554 metres wide at its widest point.

And it took a total of 39 weeks to build to put all the steel and glass together.

It meant that the Crystal Palace could house so many inventions and things that people from all across the world wanted to show off during the exhibition.

The Great Exhibition was opened in May, 1851, and it was opened by Queen Victoria.

A monarch, or head of state, would be someone who would do the important job of opening such a significant event as they're a significant figure.

And it went on from May until October, a whopping six month period of time.

During that time, more than 6 million people visited the exhibition.

Some of these people came from all across the globe.

Here we can see a painting of the Queen, Prince Albert, their children, and hundreds of people at the opening of the Great Exhibition.

And you can see they're inside the Crystal Palace.

If you look really carefully behind the tree, you can see the arch and the glass, and you can see the steel structures that are holding it up.

There are many people here, and you can see that they are dressed in very formal and royal attire because this was a very significant and special occasion.

So how do we know that the Great Exhibition was a success for Prince Albert? Share ideas with a learning partner.

Be sure to consider the learning that we have done.

How many people came, how long the exhibition went on for, what things were shown there.

Pause the video now, share your ideas.

How do we know that the Great Exhibition was a success for Prince Albert? Excellent job.

Some really lovely sharing of ideas there.

So inventors from all around the world came.

This showed that it was a success.

It wasn't just inventors from the United Kingdom, people came from the world over to come and share their inventions.

The exhibition lasted for almost six months.

Something that was unsuccessful would surely not have lasted and gone on for so long.

The exhibition was opened by the Queen, a monarch, a head of state.

Someone who's so significant would surely not have opened something that was insignificant.

Her opening of it shows that this was a significant event in British history.

More than 6 million people visited the exhibition and indeed the funds that were raised from the visits and the money that was spent there was actually then spent on building what was then crowned Albertopolis.

This is a part of London where we have the Science Museum, the Victoria and the Albert Museum, and the Natural History Museum.

This area of museums and educational institutions was thus built using many of the funds that were raised during the Great Exhibition.

As mentioned before, Prince Albert was very interested in the advancement of technology and sciences.

So one of the legacies of the Great Exhibition was this building of many museums and educational institutions within London.

So Sophia missed today's lesson as she was off school.

She's very excited to find out more about this Great Exhibition that we've been learning about.

Could you help Sophia by describing what the Great Exhibition was like, and explain some reasons why Prince Albert wanted to hold the event? Consider where it was held, the building it was held in.

What inventions were shown.

Where people came from to show their inventions, and why Prince Albert wanted to hold the event.

Pause the video and share these ideas now.

Off you go.

Brilliant job.

So your answers could have included, Prince Albert organised the Great Exhibition in 1851, so we're getting a nice date in there.

He organised it because he wanted to display lots of modern inventions.

We know that inventions are things that are created to improve people's daily lives, and if they're modern, it means they're up-to-date and of that time.

He built a huge glass building called the Crystal Palace for the exhibition.

Remember that this building was designed by Prince Albert and Robert Paxton.

It was massive and took 39 weeks to build.

It was built of glass and steel, two modern building materials of the time, and at its highest point, it was 39 metres tall.

Inventors from all over the world came to display their inventions, and Queen Victoria herself, the monarch, opened the exhibition.

It lasted for almost six months and had 6 million visitors.

And from the funds that were raised during the Great Exhibition, many museums and educational institutions were built in a specific area in South Kensington in London.

Wow, the Great Exhibition then truly was a significant event in Victorian British history.

So we today have been learning about the Great Exhibition.

Many modern inventions were introduced in Victorian times, including the flushing toilet.

These inventions were meant to improve people's lives and make their daily lives easier.

Prince Albert was very proud of the new inventions and organised the Great Exhibition as a show for all of the inventors.

Not just inventors in the United Kingdom, but inventors from all over the world came to show their inventions in the Great Exhibition.

This Great Exhibition took place in the Crystal Palace, which was built in Hyde Park, a monumental structure of glass and steel, and 6 million people visited the exhibition in the six months it was open for.

The Great Exhibition then truly was a significant event in British history.

Keep up the great history learning, team, and I'll see you again soon.