It was 160 years ago today that the first World’s Fair was held. Called the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, what would be renamed as the World’s Fair, was held in the Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park in 1851. Today, Google honors the 160th anniversary with an animated Google Doodle.
Google creates its doodles for special occasions, dates in history, or birthdays. For example, Friday’s Royal Wedding showcased a picturesque rendition of the streets of London after the the wedding. When the doodles started in 1998, they were mostly just creatively redone versions of the Google logo, but now doodles are becoming animated, and even interactive.
Today’s doodle is both. At first glance, the doodle is just the Google logo incorporated into the scene of the Expo, but scrolling over the logo brings up a magnifying glass of sorts which lets you take a closer look at the image. Scrolling over the train makes the whistle blow, scrolling over the clock shows you the inner workings of its cogs, scrolling over the fountain shows it spouting water, and scrolling over the dress in a window shows it spinning around. Also shown in the doodle is the Koh-i-noor, which, at the time, was the world’s largest-known diamond.
The Great Exhibition, as the fair is often called, was the idea of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. He wanted it to be the first exhibition of manufactured products at an international level. It led to many international exhibitions, later called World’s Fairs, which are still held to this day. A large attraction at the fairs are the national pavilions created by the hosting country. Many of the fairs have led to trademark pieces of architecture, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Space Needle in Seattle, the Atomium in Brussels, and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
In case you don’t catch the logo, YouTube user SkyingBlogger captured the doodle in motion in the video below.