04 October 2019
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More than 17,500 photographs, prints and private and official papers relating to Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, have been published on a new website to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth.
The images have been published on Prince Albert: His Life and Legacy, which sheds fresh light on Albert’s contribution as Queen Victoria’s unofficial Private Secretary, a guide and mentor to some of the greatest national projects of his day, university chancellor, art historian, collector, and patron of art, architecture and design.
The site gives new insight into Albert’s achievements before his death aged just 42, his impact on Victorian society and his influence on our world today.
Papers to be published
As part of the Prince Albert Digitisation Project, by the end of 2020 some 23,500 items from the Royal Archives, the Royal Collection and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 will be published online. These include:
- private and official papers
- catalogues of Prince Albert's private library
- his study collection of more than 5,000 prints and photographs after the work of Raphael
- 10,000 photographs collected and commissioned by Albert
The Prince Albert Digitisation Project is supported by Sir Hugh and Lady Stevenson in honour of Sir Hugh’s sister the late Dame Anne Griffiths DCVO, former Librarian and Archivist to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, and by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.
Tim Knox, director of the Royal Collection, said, ‘It is fitting that in the year in which we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Prince Albert’s birth, we launch the website, Prince Albert: His Life and Legacy, which reflects the contribution the Prince Consort made to 19th-century Britain and the wider world.
‘We hope that the publication of material held in the Royal Archives and the Royal Collection and by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 will increase awareness and understanding of the achievements of this extraordinary man. We are very grateful to Sir Hugh and Lady Stevenson and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 for their support of this important project.’
Visit the website here.
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