„várakozást mult, reményt haladott”

The rapid industrial progression in Europe created a new trend in the econ-omy of the 19th century: the exhibition. Before the Great Exhibition in 1851 there were some minor and major expositions organized on regular basis in several cities of Europe. These exhibitions had three major roles: they func-tioned as a fair, a competition, and of course they attracted the crowd. The Industrial Society was founded in Hungary in 1841 with the goal to promote the development of the handicraft and manufacturing industry. For the sake of this cause the Society planned, among others, to establish technical institutes, to organize courses, to start a periodical, to distribute informative publications and of course to organize industrial fairs annually. With the first exhibition, the shaping Industrial Society intended to evaluate the actual state of the Hungarian industry. A subcommittee of the Society – lead by Lajos Kossuth – was commissioned to set up the fair. The exhibition opened on the 25th of August, 1842, in the halls of the Redoute in Pest, and closed on the 21st of September, same year. In this period of time, 14.425 visitors were cu-rious to see the 298 products of the 213 exhibitors. The event was a success, according to the official report of Kossuth, pub-lished and printed in 1843. In the next years – 1843, 1845, 1846 – more exhi-bitions ensued. The first fair was a groundbreaking initiative and a first step in the development of the Hungarian exhibition practice and thus deserves spe-cial attention.