Great Exhibition papers of Colonel Phipps as Keeper of the Privy Purse (1849-61)

A collection of correspondence and papers relating to the Great Exhibition of 1851, mostly addressed to Colonel Charles Beaumont Phipps, as Keeper of the Privy Purse. Although Colonel Phipps was not officially a Royal Commissioner, he worked closely alongside Prince Albert in the planning and organisation of the exhibition and later in the development of the South Kensington Estate. Some of the letters are also addressed to his successor in the role of Prince Albert's Private Secretary, Colonel Charles Grey. The collection is arranged mostly in chronological order and is separated into two files. The first RA PPTO/PP/QV/ADDX/C covering the period 1849-55 and recording details of the early phase of planning, the formation of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, the organisation of the exhibition itself and early development of the South Kensington Estate. The second, RA PPTO/PP/QV/ADDX/D, covers the period 1856-61 and consists of correspondence relating to the continued development of the South Kensington Estate and later for the proposed Exhibition of 1861 [International Exhibition of 1862]. It also consists of a sub-file relating to the purchase of lots from the Bernal Collection for the Museum of Manufactures in 1854-55.