British Imperialism and its Legacies: The Empire Exhibition of 1938
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 1,378 objects commemorating Glasgow’s Empire Exhibition of 1938. Held between May and November in 0.7 square kilometres of Bellahouston Park, it cost £10 million (about £688.3 million today) and attracted 13 million visitors following the initiatives of the Scottish National Development Council to boost industry and business. Revenue from admission tickets and retail sales were intended to benefit Scotland, but unfortunately the Exhibition made a small loss.
The collection includes admission tickets, souvenir publications, stationery, medals, badges, transfers, tableware, kitchen goods, clothing, artworks, models and toys, spoons, newspaper reports, maps and plans, glassware, ceramics, textiles, soft furnishings, cards, postcards and photographs.
As the name of the exhibition suggests, the imperial content was extensive, with pavilions and displays celebrating interdependence and promoting global prosperity and peace. Colonial displays centred on the Dominion and Colonial Avenues and Empire Court, where large pavilion displays included countries such as South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Burma (now Myanmar), British West Indies, Guiana, and Ireland. Landscape displays represented Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Australian trees and flowers, Canadian geological resources (guarded by Canadian Mounted Police), and precious metals and stones from Burma. Industrial displays included models of Sydney Harbour Bridge and New Zealand spiral railways. A South African Zulu village was recreated.
Further imperial content included displays in the Industrial Hall by Shell, ICI, Dunlop and Beardmore, military displays, and music and film shows for Herbert Wilcox’s Sixty Glorious Years a sequel to his 1937 film Victoria the Great, celebrating the rule of Queen Victoria.
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