William Hepworth Dixon

William Hepworth Dixon (30 June 1821 – 26 December 1879) was an English historian and traveller. He was also active in organizing London's Great Exhibition of 1851.

He was born on 30 June 1821, at Great Ancoats in Manchester. His father was Abner Dixon of Holmfirth and Kirkburton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, his mother Mary Cryer. His uncle was the reform campaigner and manufacturer Elijah Dixon. His boyhood was passed in the hill country of Over Darwen, under the tuition of his grand-uncle, Michael Beswick. As a lad he became clerk to a merchant named Thompson at Manchester.

Early in 1846 Dixon decided on a literary career. He was for two months editor of the Cheltenham Journal. While at Cheltenham he won two principal essay prizes in Madden's Prize Essay Magazine. In the summer of 1846, on the recommendation of Douglas Jerrold, he moved to London. He entered the Inner Temple, but was not called to the bar until 1 May 1854. He never practised as a barrister.

About 1850 Dixon was appointed a deputy-commissioner of the Great Exhibition of 1851. He helped to start more than one hundred out of three hundred committees then formed. After a long tour in Europe Dixon became, in January 1853, editor of The Athenaeum, to which he had been a contributor for some years.

In 1861 Dixon travelled in Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. In 1863 he travelled in the East, and on his return helped to found the Palestine Exploration Fund; Dixon was an active member of the executive committee, and eventually became chairman. In 1866 he travelled through the United States, going as far west as Salt Lake City. During this tour he discovered a collection of state papers, originally Irish, in the Public Library at Philadelphia. They had been missing since the time of James II, and on Dixon's suggestion were given to the British government.

In autumn 1867 Dixon travelled through the Baltic provinces. In the latter part of 1869 he travelled for some months in Russia. During 1871 he was mostly in Switzerland. Shortly afterwards he was sent to Spain on a financial mission by a council of foreign bondholders. On 4 October 1872 he was created a knight commander of the Crown by Kaiser Wilhelm I. In the September 1874 he travelled through Canada and the United States; in the latter part of 1875 he travelled once more in Italy and Germany.

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