POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Lithograph 'Burning of the Garden Palace, Sydney'

Lithograph 'Burning of the Garden Palace, Sydney'

Object No. P2239

This lithograph shows a view of the burning Garden Palace from Macquarie Street and was a supplement to the ‘Illustrated Sydney News’ dated 25 October 1882. The Garden Palace was built to house the Sydney International Exhibition between 17 September 1879 – 20 April 1880. Designed by Government architect James Barnet it contained over a million metres of timber, 2.5 million bricks and 220 tonnes of galvanised corrugated iron. The building had a cathedral-like cruciform design, showcasing a stained-glass skylight in the largest dome in the southern hemisphere (64 metres high and 30 metres in diameter). The floor space of the exhibition building was three and half hectares, and the area occupied by the Garden Palace and related buildings was 14 hectares. It contained Sydney’s first hydraulic lift enabling visitors to go up the north tower and view Sydney Harbour.[1] The Garden Place showcased the best of decorative arts, technology and industry from over thirty four countries and their colonies proving incredibly popular with 1,117,536 visitors over the three years of its opening. After it closed becoming home to the new Technological Museum’s collections (now the Powerhouse Museum) along with government records and an art gallery. It dominated the Sydney skyline for three brief years before, on 22 September 1882, a fire took less than five hours to reduce it to rubble destroying the treasures stored inside. The next day, the Sydney Technological Industrial and Sanitary Museum Committee met and resolved to rebuild New South Wales’ collection. Anni Turnbull, Curator, 2022 [1] Garden Palace Story, State Library NSW Website https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/exhibition

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Summary

Object Statement

Lithograph, 'Burning of the Garden Palace, Sydney', paper, Gibbs Shallard & Company, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1882

Physical Description

Lithograph, 'Burning of the Garden Palace, Sydney', paper, made by Gibbs Shallard & Company, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1882 A view of the burning of the Garden Palace during the evening, from across Macquarie Street. The building occupies the entire centre of the vista, with the harbour in the background. Flames pour out from the roof line and from some windows along the entire length of the building and reach a height that is almost to the top of the dome. The predominant colours of the lithograph are orange, blue/grey, beige, rusty brown with lines in grey. The title of the lithograph is underneath the image and the words 'Supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News October 25 1882' are above the image. The name of the printer is underneath the image in the lower left corner.

DIMENSIONS

Height

440 mm

Width

572 mm

PRODUCTION

Notes

The lithograph was made by Gibbs Shallard & Company, Sydney in 1882. This company worked in publishing, printing and lithography and were the publishers of the Sydney Illustrated News between 1881 and 1894.

HISTORY

Notes

The lithograph was issued as a supplement to the 'Illustrated Sydney News', October 25 1882.

SOURCE

Credit Line

Gift of Richard Thomas Baker, 1906

Acquisition Date

30 April 1906

Copyright for the above image is held by the Powerhouse and may be subject to third-party copyright restrictions. Please submit an Image Licensing Enquiry for information regarding reproduction, copyright and fees. Text is released under Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivative licence.

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