Sir Henry Cole was an English civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending greetings cards at Christmas time, introducing the world's first commercial
Christmas cardA Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas and holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people in Western...
in 1843.
Biography
Henry Cole was born in Bath, and educated at
Christ's HospitalChrist's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...
in London. He began his career at the age of 15 at the
Public Record OfficeThe Public Record Office of the United Kingdom is one of the three organisations that make up the National Archives...
, where he became Assistant Keeper and was instrumental in reforming the organisation and preservation of the British national archives.
From 1837 to 1840, he worked as an assistant to
Rowland HillSir Rowland Hill KCB, FRS was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage and his solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters...
and played a key role in the introduction of the
Penny PostThe Penny Post is any one of several postal systems in which normal letters could be sent for one penny.-London Penny Post:In England, the Post Office had a monopoly on the collection and carriage of letters between post towns but there was no delivery system until the London Penny Post was...
. He is sometimes credited with the design of the world's first postage stamp, the
Penny BlackThe Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year....
.
In 1843, Cole introduced the world's first commercial
Christmas cardA Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas and holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people in Western...
, commissioning artist
John Callcott HorsleyJohn Callcott Horsley RA , was an English Academic painter of genre and historical scenes, illustrator, and designer of the first Christmas card. He was a member of the artist's colony in Cranbrook.-Life:...
to make the artwork.
As Felix Summerly
Cole was personally interested in industrial design, and under the pseudonym
Felix Summerly designed a number of items which went into production, including a prize-winning teapot manufactured by Minton. As Felix Summerly, he also wrote a series of children's books, including A book of stories from The home treasury; A hand-book for the architecture, sculpture, tombs, and decorations of Westminster Abbey (1859); An Alphabet of Quadrupeds (1844); and The most delectable history of Reynard the Fox (illustrated with twenty-four coloured pictures by Aldert van Everdingen) (1846).
Cole and the exhibitions
Through his membership of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, Cole lobbied government for support for his campaign to improve standards in industrial design. The backing of Prince Albert was secured, and in 1847 a royal charter was granted to the
Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and CommerceThe Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
(RSA). Under the patronage of Prince Albert, Cole organised a successful Exhibition of Art Manufactures in 1847, with enlarged exhibitions following in 1848 and 1849.
Cole visited the 1849 11th Quinquennial Paris Exhibition and noticed the lack of an exhibition open to international participants. He saw that the RSA's planned exhibitions for 1850 and 1851 could be adapted into a larger international exhibition, and he secured the backing of Queen Victoria to establish in 1850 the
Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 is an institution founded in 1850 to administer the international exhibition of 1851, officially called the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, held in The Crystal Palace in London, England...
to manage the new exhibition, under the Presidency of Prince Albert.
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations was held in
The Crystal PalaceThe Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
in
Hyde Park, LondonHyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and was an enormous popular and financial success, partially due to the astute management of Henry Cole.
Museums
As one of the Commissioners, Cole was instrumental in the decision that the £186,000 surplus from the Great Exhibition would be used for improving science and art education in the United Kingdom. Land was purchased in the South Kensington area and developed as the centre for a number of educational and cultural institutions, known half-jokingly as "
AlbertopolisAlbertopolis is the area centred on South Kensington, Kensington & Chelsea, London, England, between Cromwell Road and Kensington Gore, which contains a large number of educational and cultural sites, including:*Imperial College London...
". Henry Cole was appointed the first General Superintendent of the Department of Practical Art, set up by the government to improve standards of art and design education in Britain with reference to their applicability to industry. In this capacity he was instrumental in the development of the
Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
which had begun as the Museum of Ornamental Art in
Marlborough HouseMarlborough House is a mansion in Westminster, London, in Pall Mall just east of St James's Palace. It was built for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, the favourite and confidante of Queen Anne. The Duchess wanted her new house to be "strong, plain and convenient and good"...
. Cole oversaw its move to its current site, and became first director of what was initially called South Kensington Museum from 1857 to 1873. In 1974 a part of the museum that was once known as the Huxley Building was renamed the Henry Cole Building; today it forms the Henry Cole Wing of the V&A.
Honours and legacy
Cole was instrumental in the development of the
Royal College of ArtThe Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
as a postgraduate design school and played a part in the establishment of many other South Kensington institutions, such as the
Royal College of MusicThe Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
and
Imperial College LondonImperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
. In fact, the Imperial College Mathematics Department was formerly based in the Henry Cole Wing on
Exhibition RoadExhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London, forming a semi-border between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster...
, before the premises were donated to the Victoria & Albert Museum.
He was awarded the
CBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
for his work on the Great Exhibition and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1875. Often referred to in the press as "Old King" Cole, he was known to have the closest personal backing of the Queen and especially of the Prince Consort, who when he needed a facilitator for one of his pet projects, was heard to remark: "We must have steam, get Cole".
An English heritage
blue plaqueA blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
commemorates Henry Cole where he lived and worked at 33
Thurloe SquareThurloe Square is a traditional garden square in South Kensington, London, England.There are private communal gardens in the centre of the square for use by the local residents. The Victoria and Albert Museum is close by to the north across Thurloe Place and Cromwell Gardens...
,
South KensingtonSouth Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is a built-up area located 2.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....
, London, opposite the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In 2001, one of Henry Cole's first Christmas cards, which was sent to his Grandmother in 1843, sold at auction for £22,500.
Further reading
- Bonython, Elizabeth and Anthony Burton The Great Exhibitor: The Life and Work of Henry Cole, London: V & A, 2003.
- Bonython, Elizabeth King Cole: A Picture Portrait of Sir Henry Cole, London, 1985.
- Cole, Henry Fifty years of public work of Sir Henry Cole accounted for in his deeds, speeches and writings, (in two volumes) London, Bell and Sons, 1884 (Completed by Henrietta and Alan S. Cole after Henry Cole's death). Design Council Archive – University of Brighton Design Archives (Journal of Design and Manufactures is still not digitised, but is open to researchers) Journal of Design and Manufactures
External links