The
Crystal Palace
Foundation

Print of a round the world game produced in c1854 by Henry Smith Evans, FRGS and  lithographed by John Anthony L’Enfant.

The game was probably produced to coincide with the removal to Sydenham of the Crystal Palace built for the Great Exhibition and intended to highlight the United Kingdom’s pre-eminence as world leader in arts, science and technology and her global dominance. As the motto at bottom centre attests –

‘Britain upon whose empire the sun never sets’.

The track of the players round the game is marked with numbered steps, starting from the Azores (number 1) and continuing round the world, coasting Africa, through Arabia, round India, through the East Indies, along the Pacific rim, back to Australia then round the coast of South America, past Cape Horn and then up round Brazil through the West Indies, along the eastern seaboard of the United States to Newfoundland and from there making the transatlantic crossing to the British Isles.

The rules, which would explain the various numbers and images, are unknown. Without the rules it is impossible to gain a complete understanding of the intricacies of the game, although it may well be that squares 11, a ship threatened by a large sea-monster, and 46 and 58, mariners being killed by hostile natives (58 being Cook) are ‘death’ or at least penalty squares.

A3 size print