The Royal and Imperial Visit to the Crystal Palace

Photograph showing Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, seated on a dais with floral decorations at the base, during their visit to Crystal Palace Exhibition. Crowds of people stand around the dais. Statues, including one featuring a man and a horse, are located in the background. The photograph is framed by a decorative border.

Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, and his wife, Empress Eugénie, paid a state visit to England from 16 to 21 April 1855, at a time when England and France were fighting together as allies in the Crimea. The visit, which was a great success, and the return state visit to Paris by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in August of the same year symbolised the alliance between two countries which had formerly been bitter enemies. During the Emperor and Empress's visit to England they were taken by their hosts to the Crystal Palace, the site of the 1851 Exhibition of the Works of all Nations, with which Prince Albert had been closely involved. The Palace had been moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham and reopened in June 1854.