Glasgow on Show and the Boys in Blue, 1888-1938
Alistair Goldsmith describes how Glasgow's police force endeavoured to preserve the city's standing as it played host to a series of international set-pieces.
The spate of international exhibitions held in Glasgow from 1888 to 1938 endeavoured to underline the economic importance of the city. Their organisation as examples of large-scale sustained events linked Glasgow to international projects going back to the Great Exhibitions of London (1851), New York (1855) and Paris (1855). The Empire Exhibition in 1938, for example, far from being seen as a parochial imitation compared with the magnificence of Wembley in 1924-25, was likened in the most positive terms, particularly architecturally, to the Paris exhibition of 1937. In addition, the Glasgow Exhibition authorities welcomed visiting organisers from the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco and the New York World's Fair held the following year.
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