An 1890 Exhibition of football in Edinburgh

When Edinburgh hosted an International Exhibition in 1890, the organisers knew that they would have to put on special entertainment to draw the crowds through the summer and autumn months.
   Alongside the displays of new technology, the balloon rides and the fireworks, a key part of their strategy was to stage a series of top class football matches at the exhibition’s recreation ground at Meggetland, in the west of the city. Over a dozen attractive fixtures featured all of Edinburgh's clubs as well as guests from the west of Scotland and from England.

This built on the success of the Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art, which was staged on the Meadows in 1886 and concluded with a short series of football matches.
   In 1890, football was a much stronger element of the Exhibition and the large crowds of visitors could be whisked to the ground by electric railway from Haymarket Station, or by launch on the Union Canal. The series kicked off in August with two local derbies, Hearts v Hibs and Leith Athletic v St Bernard's, before branching out to include teams from far and wide.
   It was still the amateur era in Scotland so the organisers made sure the players were rewarded with something tangible. The winners of the first three matches – Hearts, Leith Athletic and Dumbarton – were presented with silver cups, the first of which is in the Hearts Museum at Tynecastle; also, the players in every game were awarded medals, a couple of which have come up at auction in recent years.

Another collectable souvenir of the matches was the daily events programme which contained full line-ups of all the big games including Hearts v Nottingham Forest and Rangers v Sunderland Albion, not to mention those featuring Dumbarton, Queen's Park and Third Lanark.
   A bound volume of the programmes is held in Special Collections at the National Library of Scotland, and for several of the clubs these issues represent their oldest known match programmes. If any individual programmes ever turned up at auction they would surely fetch a high price.
   Hearts, who won all three of their matches, even played a home Scottish Cup tie at Meggetland rather than Tynecastle and their 3-0 victory over Methlan Park (from Dumbarton) in October is in the programme collection.

For Hibs the Exhibition was less memorable as the club was then struggling for existence due to the recent exodus of players to Celtic and the impending loss of their ground. Their 2-0 defeat to Hearts was followed by a humiliating 9-0 reverse at the hands of Queen’s Park, and few were surprised when Hibs effectively went out of business before the year was out (they re-formed in 1893).
   Among other interesting ties, the organisers scheduled matches to coincide with local holidays elsewhere in Scotland, which explains why Rangers came to Edinburgh on a Thursday afternoon, and the same applies to visiting teams from Kilmarnock, Moffat, Dundee and Kirkcaldy. Some games were distinctively parochial, such as those featuring local butchers and grocers, while the Exhibition staff pitched in to provide the opposition for three games, including one where Kirkcaldy FC failed to turn up against Raith Rovers.
   Although football was the main attraction, the Exhibition also hosted a rugby match in September between Hawick and Stewart's College, while the pioneering Lady Cricketers played a three day match in August.

Edinburgh Exhibition matches 1890
 
6 August: Heart of Midlothian 2 Hibernian 0
13 August: Leith Athletic 3 St Bernard’s 1
20 August: Dumbarton 3 Leith Athletic 1
27 August: Queen’s Park 9 Hibernian 0
30 August: Third Lanark 2 Our Boys 1
10 September: Butchers 1 Grocers 3
15 September: Heart of Midlothian 1 Nottingham Forest 0
17 September: Kilmarnock 8 Wishaw Thistle 1
24 September: Exhibition Attendants v Leith Butchers
2 October: Rangers 2 Sunderland Albion 0
6 October: Exhibition Attendants 0 Raith Rovers 7
9 October: Moffat 6 Kirkintilloch Athletic 4
13 October: Lochee 4 Edinburgh Postal 1
17 October: Dumfries Wanderers 8 Exhibition Attendants 0
18 October: Heart of Midlothian 3 Methlan Park 0 (Scottish Cup tie)
29 October: Cameron Highlanders 0 Lancashire Fusiliers 1 (Army Cup tie)

The pages above show the team pages from the daily events programmes at the 1890 Edinburgh Exhibition. They are all held at the National Library of Scotland. Note that the numbering of matches is not correct!

Below, some programme covers from other exhibitions in Edinburgh and Glasgow, all of which featured football.