(exhibere to exhibit, furnish, maintain, &c.), a showing or presenting to view; a display. In law, delivery of writings in proof of facts; a bill of discovery.

In our old writers it is also used for an allowance of meat, drink, a pension or salary; and it is now applied to a benefaction settled for the maintenance of scholars in English universities, not depending on the foundation. In this sense the term is analogous to the Scottish bursary. Among physicians, exhibition is a standard and convenient term to express the administering of a medicine.

EXHIBITIONS OF WORKS OF FINE ART.—A collection of works of fine art arranged in some suitable place for public inspection is styled an exhibition. It is organized on a different principle from that of a national gallery or museum, for the works are not permanently conserved, but contributed for a limited period annually, new examples being provided for every successive exhibition.

Exhibitions are comparatively of modern institution. In former times artists were chiefly patronized by the church or the government, and the edifices in which their productions were placed were patent to the public; but now artists rely mainly on private patronage, and generally obtain the sanction of those for whom they execute works to exhibit them publicly for a limited period as specimens of their skill, or if executed for sale these exhibitions afford an opportunity of disposing of their works, while they themselves are improved in their art by the opportunity of comparing their own efforts with those of other artists.

The members of the Academy of the Fine Arts, founded at Rome in 1598, probably on particular occasions exhibited their works collectively to the public; but it was in France in 1737 that the members of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (founded 1648) first regularly instituted annual exhibitions. These were made biennial in 1745, and were from their commencement confined to works executed by members of the academy; but during the Revolution (by a decree in 1791) all artists, French or foreign, were allowed to participate in the exhibition, which in 1796 was again made annual.

The earliest attempt at an exhibition in England was in 1760; and the efforts of the artists were at length united in the Royal Academy's exhibitions, the first of which was opened in 1769. Since then they have been continued with increasing energy. In 1760 the number of works exhibited was 130, contributed by 69 artists; in 1855 there were 1558 works, contributed by 918 exhibitors. The annual revenue of the academy arises from a fee of one shilling from each visitor, and now exceeds £8000.

The Royal Scottish Academy's exhibition is the second in importance in the United Kingdom. Though according to its present constitution it only dates from 1826, those who instituted it had previously organized exhibitions in Edinburgh, which had been annually continued, with some few interruptions, since 1808. At the first exhibition, 178 works were sent in by 27 contributors; at the exhibition in 1855 789 works were contributed by 287 exhibitors. The annual revenue exceeds £2000. Exhibitions are annually opened in Dublin by the Royal Hibernian Academy. These are the only fine-art corporations in this country aided by government, the two first-mentioned being accommodated in public galleries, and the last receiving an annual money grant. Besides the above mentioned the following societies in London have also exhibitions, namely, the British Institution, founded in 1806; the Society of British Artists, in 1824; the National Institution, in 1850; the Society of Painters in Water Colours, in 1805; and the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, in 1835. There are also annual exhibitions in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham, Cork, Newcastle, &c. But with the exception of those in London and the Royal Scottish and Hibernian Academies, they are mainly composed of works collected all over the kingdom, but principally in London.

EXHIBITION OF 1851.—The Great Exhibition of Works of Industry of all Nations, held in the British metropolis, Exhibition was publicly announced in October 1849. Prince Albert, as president of the Society of Arts, offered himself to the public as their leader in the undertaking; and her Majesty's proclamation appointing a commission to promote the project was issued January 3, 1850. The amount of public subscriptions to the Crystal Palace was £67,359, 3s. 10d. After much discussion relative to the site proposed, a vast structure was erected on the south side of Hyde Park, from a design of Mr (afterwards Sir Joseph) Paxton. This building (usually called the Crystal Palace from the material of which it was chiefly composed) resembled, upon a great scale, the Victoria Regia plant-house erected at Chatsworth, after Mr Paxton's own design. The contract with Messrs Fox and Henderson was for £79,800—a sum afterwards somewhat increased by additions to the plan; or for £150,000 if the building were permanently retained. The exhibition was opened by her Majesty in state, May 1, 1851; and it remained open to the public till 11th October—shortly after which time the Crystal Palace was taken down.

This gigantic structure occupied an area of 21 acres, and was composed entirely of large sheets of glass set in a framework of iron, except near the ground, where it was boarded. Its length was 1851 feet (a number corresponding to the year of the exhibition); and its width in the broadest part 456 feet: the transept, intersecting the building at right angles in the middle, was 408 feet long, 108 high, and 72 wide. The entire structure consisted of three tiers of elevation, the central portion being 64 feet high, the adjacent side portions 44 feet, and the outer sides 24 feet high. The materials employed were as follows:—896,000 superficial feet of glass weighing 400 tons; wrought-iron 550 tons; cast-iron 3500 tons; wood, including flooring, 600,000 cubic feet; nearly 2300 cast-iron girders, and 358 wrought-iron trusses for supporting the roof and the galleries (which extended nearly a mile in length); 30 miles of gutters; 202 miles of sash-bars, and 3330 cast-iron columns. The number of exhibitors was about 17,000; of prize-medals awarded, 2918; of council medals, 170. The greatest number of visitors in one week was in that ending 11th October, when the number of persons paying at the doors was 478,773. The total amount of entrance fees during the season was £424,418, 15s.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was altogether novel in principle, and unparalleled in magnitude and magnificence; comprehending under one roof, in almost endless variety, specimens of the industrial productions, not only of Great Britain, but of the European states generally, together with those of nearly every part of the habitable globe. An account of these, as well as of the peculiar mode of construction of the Crystal Palace, may be found in the official descriptive and illustrated catalogues and reports of the juries.

Our limits preclude our entering into the history of national industrial exhibitions, or to make more than a passing reference to the various local exhibitions of works of industry which have taken place from time to time in the United Kingdom, such as those at Cork, Sheffield, Plymouth, and Salisbury in 1852, Dublin in 1853, and in Birmingham in 1849. Similar exhibitions were organized in Belgium in 1830, in the United States in 1853, at Munich in 1854, and especially in France in 1798, 1801, 1802, 1806, 1819, 1844, and on a large scale in 1855. This last is constituted on an entirely different basis from the English Exhibition of 1851; being set on foot by the capital of a commercial company formed for the purpose, and on the prospect of remunerative profits; but the state also takes a distinct and positive share in the risks of the enterprise, as it does with railways and other works of public utility. A certain percentage to the holders of stock is guaranteed by the government; and in right thereof an imperial commission is appointed which exercises supreme control. By this arrangement the proprietors are to receive whatever surplus may remain after all expenses are paid; whereas the £170,000 derived from the prices of admission to the London Exhibition stands over as a public trust fund, under royal charter, to be applied to objects in harmony with those for which the exhibition was held.

The French Exhibition is not contained under one roof, nor of the several buildings are all intended to be of a temporary character. The buildings, in the aggregate, will probably include greater area than the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. The main building is the Palais de l'Industrie, a permanent edifice of rectangular form and with considerable pretensions to architectural effect. In this will be exhibited all the higher productions of manufacturing industry. There is also the "Annexe," a shed 4000 feet long, parallel to the Seine, for the exhibition of machinery and raw produce. According to the plan, these two structures are connected by a gallery running across the Champs Élysées, and having in its centre a fine circular space, which is appropriated to the productions of Sévres and the other national establishments; and in addition there is an extra shed for the exhibition of carriages and other articles of great bulk.

For an account of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, see SYDENHAM. Other exhibitions of works of art generally will be found under the heads of the places where they are held; as London, Edinburgh, Paris, &c.