Queen's Album e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 11
Statue of Prince Albert
1871
Glass plate negative
NSW State Archives
NRS 4481 SH209
(left)
Government House
c. 1880
Glass plate negative
NSW State Archives
NRS 4481 SH291
7
AN ALBUM,
AN ANNIVERSARY
It was while developing another exhibition,
Windows into Wartime, in 2016 that we first
came across newspaper reports from the early
1880s detailing how an album of photographs had
been gifted to Queen Victoria on behalf of the people
of NSW. The album and its photographs—like those
featured in Windows into Wartime—had been
produced by the NSW Government Printing Office
(GPO). Its photographic department had developed
a vast and impressive body of work featuring people,
places and events in NSW over 120 years from its
establishment in the 1860s until its closure in 1988.
Given that the GPO had been a NSW Government
agency, its records are held in the State Archives
Collection.
Knowing that the 200th anniversary of the birth of
Queen Victoria would be marked on 24 May 2019,
and that there has been a renewed interest in
the story of this monarch—most notably through
the hit television drama series, Victoria, which
premiered in 2016, and the feature film Victoria
and Abdul (2017)—there was an opportunity for
NSW State Archives to contribute to the creation
of contemporary ‘Victoria’ culture. A curated
exhibition project would provide the perfect
platform through which to do this.
The more and more we read contemporary
accounts of the creation and gifting of the album to
Queen Victoria, the more our curiosity was sparked.
Whose idea was it? What were its instigators
hoping to achieve? Which images were selected for
inclusion? Why these and not others? Who crafted
the album and what was special about its design?
