3-057-067 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe Owen, director of the South Kensington Museum, 1880. In 1855, Cunliffe Owen was appointed one of the superintendents of the British section of the International Exhibition held at Paris, under Sir Henry Cole. In 1857 he was made deputy general superintendent of the South Kensington Museum. This was followed by his appointment in 1860 as assistant director, with Cole being director of the museum, and secretary of the Science and Art Department. In 1862, Owen was director of the foreign contingency of the second London Exhibition. In 1867, at the Paris Exhibition he was again second in command to Cole. In 1873 Owen became director of the South Kensington Museum, after Cole's retirement.