Edinburgh Events - 1886 Exhibition at The Meadows

Old Edinburgh Exhibit

The 1886 Exhibition was one of several major exhibitions held in Edinburgh in the late-19th and early-20th century. It was held at the Meadows.

One of its main attractions was a reconstruction of some of the old buildings that used to stand in the old town of Edinburgh but had been demolished by 1886.

Marshall Wane was the official photographer for this feature of the exhibition. He produced cabinet prints and cartes de visite showing several views from the Old Edinburgh exhibit. In the early 1900s, he
re-issued these views as postcards.

Souvenir

Many souvenirs were no doubt produced for sale at the Exhibition. Here is one of them, as described to me in a recent email from Australia:

I have a carved ivory cross 4.5 cm long, 3 cms wide and 0.8 cm thick. At
the centre of the cross is a removable metal tube 0.5 cm wide and this has a glass cylinder fitted inside it.

Now here is the amazing thing. If I look through one end of this glass
cylinder I can see 5 black and white photos – like old fashioned postcards – one long with 4 smaller ones underneath that.

The heading for these photos is OLD EDINBURGH and underneath is a caption International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art. 1886."

[Adele Mitchell, New South Wales, Australia - September 2004]

If you know anything more about this item, please e-mail me so that I can pass on the information to the owner. Thank you.

Still in Edinburgh

Several reminders of this exhibition can still be found around Edinburgh, including:

- The Jawbone Arch at the Meadows.

- Gateposts featuring about twenty different varieties of stone. These posts still stand at the Meadows, and give a good comparison of how the different stones have survived the Edinburgh weather.

- A Brass Founders' Pillar, featuring the biblical character, Tubal Cain, the legendary founder of brass and iron making skills. This monument was commissioned for the 1886 Exhibition by the Edinburgh and Leith Brass Founders. Following the exhibition, the pillar was moved from the Meadows to Nicolson Square where it now stands.

- The Portuguese canon now situated on Calton Hill. This was won in the Burmese War, when Burma was added to the Indian Empire in 1886. It was donated by the Government to the City of Edinburgh and displayed in the 1886 Exhibition.

- Attractive large scenes of industry in the 19th century and earlier were produced on tiles for the exhibition (or was it the 1890 exhibition. I'll check.) These can now be found on the walls of the Cafe Royal, close to the East End of Princes Street.