Woman’s Exhibition in Earls Court, London, 1900

Information about the Woman’s Exhibition in Earl’s Court in the Summer of 1900 is hard to find. Online copies of the Daily Program, Official Guide, and so on are readily available, but little else in the usual places. However, Hope Willard at the University of Lincoln published the following description by Emma Fox, a BA History student.

“For my dissertation, I have been writing about the Woman’s Exhibition held in 1900 at Earl’s Court. This was one of many commercial exhibitions held by London Exhibitions Ltd under Imre Kiralfy who was known in both Britain and the USA for his spectacles and shows. My dissertation explores the exhibition’s representations of women and if and how these appealed to the public.

“The exhibition appears to have been very well-received, which I have determined through the press response. Most articles highlighted the main attraction, the ‘Women of All Nations’, which showcased women and their ‘work’ (usually handicrafts) from 24 nations. The domestic focus of the exhibition reflected traditional views on women’s work but also, in emphasising the importance of the domestic space, reflected feminist thought of the time. Many feminists at the turn of the twentieth century, took no issue with the notion that women’s work was domestic work. They sought to build on this traditional view but change attitudes towards it, emphasising domestic work as respectable, distinct from and as important as men’s work…

“Ultimately, the Woman’s Exhibition was a commercial event and so the choice to dedicate an exhibition to women is fascinating as it seems it would have been a big risk. However, it was well-received in the press and it has been incredibly interesting to explore the ways that Kiralfy mitigated the risk through appealing to popular imperialism, fun-fair style attractions and sticking to portrayals of women that emphasised their femininity.”

Source: https://library.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2020/03/09/1900-the-womans-exhibition/

Little information about the incubator exhibit itself has survived, and I have not been able to find any photographs as of yet, but we know that Dr. Lion, or representatives of his company, were present with his incubators from the “Entertainments” section of the Daily Program, the Official Guide, and contemporary press (below).

• General Information
  • Dr. Alexandre Lion
  • The Lion Incubator
  • The Engineer and the Newborns, by W. A. Nelson and Paul L. Toubas
• Lion Incubator Patents (France)
  • Patent 201550, 1889
  • Patent 221716, 1892
• Maternité Lion Institutes
  • Alexandre Lion’s first incubator baby exhibit in Marseille, 1890.
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants, Paris
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants, New York
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants, Barcelona
• Maternité Lion Souvenir Booklets
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants , Paris Institute, Booklet Version #1 (appears to be ~1896)
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants , Paris Institute, Booklet Version #2 (appears to be ~1901)
  • Pamphlet from Alexander Lion’s exhibit at the 1898 exhibition in Torino, Italy. (PDF supplied by Dr. Thijs Gras, Amsterdam)
• Press Coverage
  • La Maternité “Lion de Nice” pour Enfants Nés Avant Terme ou Débiles, by Dr. Ciaudo, 1895.
  • Les Couveuses pour Enfants, Gazette Médicale de Paris, 1900
  • Couveuses d’Enfants, La Maternité Lion, Paris, La Patrie, 1897
  • Paris Letter: An Improved System of Incubators, by O. Jennings, Pediatrics 1:427-428, 1896
  • Baby Incubators, The Strand Magazine, 1896, by James Walter Smith
  • Human Infant Incubation: A True Fairy-Tale of Modern Science from Leslie’s Weekly, 1897
  • The Saving of Human Life, Maternité Lion in NYC, The Literary Digest, 1898
  • Immature Infants in France, from The Lancet, January 16, 1897, page 196.
  • Alexandre Lion’s Incubator Charities in Europe (1894–1898) (The Embryo Project)
  • Newspaper Articles about Lion’s Storefronts and Expositions
• Worlds Fairs and Expositions
  • Maternité Lion at the Lyon Exposition Universelle et Coloniale, 1894
    • Maternité Lion at the Lyon Exposition Universelle – Le Monde Illustré, 1894
  • Maternité Lion at the Bordeaux Exposition of 1895.
    • “La Maternité Lion,” by Louis Énault, Journal of the Bordeaux Exposition, 1895
  • Maternité Lion at the Amsterdam World Exposition, 1895
  • Maternité Lion at the Berliner Gewerbeausstellung, 1896
  • Maternité Lion at the Exposition National Suisse, Geneva, Switzerland, 1896
  • Maternité Lion at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, 1897
  • Maternité Lion at the Brussels International Exposition, 1897
  • Maternité Lion at the Turin L’Esposizione Generale Italiana, 1898
  • Maternite Lion at the Ghent Provincial Exposition of 1899
  • Maternité Lion at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900
  • The Greater Britain Exhibition of 1899
  • Woman’s Exhibition in Earls Court, London, 1900
  • Maternité Lion at the Lille Exposition of 1902
  • Maternité Lion at the Marseille Colonial Exposition of 1906
  • Maternite Lion at the Bordeaux International Maritime Exposition of 1907
  • Maternité Lion at the Marseille Exposition Internationale d’Électricité, 1908
  • Maternité Lion at the Exposition Internationale de l’Est de la France, Nancy, France, 1909
  • Maternité Lion at the Brussels Exposition Universelle et Internationale, 1910
  • Maternite Lion at the Exposition du Centre de la France, Clermont-Ferrand, 1910
  • Maternité Liion at the Rome International Exposition of 1911
  • Maternité Lion at the Turin International Exposition of 1911
  • Maternité Lion at the Ghent International Exposition of 1913
  • Exposition Internationale Urbaine de Lyon, 1914

Last Updated on 05/11/26