Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition commemorative handkerchief

Commemorative handkerchief made for the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition, 1887.

This commemorative handkerchief was produced for Manchester’s Royal Jubilee Exhibition which was held in 1887 in Old Trafford to mark 50 years of Queen Victoria’s reign. The theme of the exhibition was progress in science, industry and art during the last 50 years. There were displays on machinery, chemicals, industrial design and fine art, with manufacturers and artists from across Britain exhibiting their work.

The handkerchief appears to be made of cotton and looks to have been dyed using the ‘Turkey Red’ process, which produced a bright and fast red colour.

The handkerchief presents a narrative of progress in relation to Manchester’s textiles industry. Bordered by depictions of loom shuttles and bales of raw cotton and along with Manchester's coat of arms decorated with illustrations of cotton plants, portraits of Queen Victoria and her family and the Mayor and ex Mayor of Manchester, are comparative statistics relating to Manchester’s textiles industry at the start of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1837 and 50 years later in 1887. This includes information about the increase in imports of raw cotton and exports of finished goods, as well as the increase in the number of spindles in operation. The statistics show that in 1837, Britain imported 1,175,975 bales of cotton, which had increased to 3,942,000 bales in 1887. They show that Britain exported cotton goods worth £32,062,000 in 1837, compared to £106,077,000 in 1887. There were 10,000,000 spindles at work in 1837 and 47,000,000 by 1887.

Manchester's textiles industry relied on a supply of raw cotton which, until 1865, was mostly planted and picked by enslaved African people and their descendants in the southern United States. Between 1861 and 1865, the industry faced a severe depression, known as the Lancashire Cotton Famine, due in part to the blockade of cotton exports during the American Civil War fought between the Union and the Confederacy. Manufacturers in Manchester tried to adapt by sourcing cotton from elsewhere, including India, but this could not make up for the quantities of cotton grown by enslaved people which usually sustained the industry, leading to a widespread downturn and unemployment amongst the cotton workforce during this period.