Manchester in the mid-nineteenth century was a city of industry and commerce - wealthy, to be sure, but also polluted and over crowded, and certainly not a major cultural centre. A group of Mancunian businessmen was determined to change this. The result was the Art Treasures Exhibition of the United Kingdom of 1857, an exhibition of some 16,000 works borrowed mainly from private owners around the country and housed in a purpose-built 'art palace'. The show was a huge success, drawing 1.3 million visitors over a period of five months. To mark the 150th anniversary of the original exhibition, the story of this unprecedented expression of civic pride is told here. Illustrated with images of many of the original exhibits, as well as artists' impressions of the exhibition itself, it is the story of an event which exemplified the birth of modern attitudes towards art. This book is published in association with Manchester Art Gallery.