Queen's Album e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 12
HER MAJESTY’S GIFT:
A GRACEFUL TRIBUTE
OF LOYALTY
The idea of presenting an album to Queen Victoria
originated with Sir Henry Parkes, Premier and
Colonial Secretary of NSW, in late-1880. For Parkes,
the album would represent a ‘graceful tribute
of loyalty’ and ‘a pictorial representation of the
characteristic features of one of the greatest of
[Her Majesty’s] Colonial possessions’. He charged
Thomas Richards, the Government Printer of the
Colony, with responsibility for the album’s design
and fabrication.
By 1880 the GPO photographic department had
amassed a collection of some 800 ‘views’ of NSW.
It was decided that a selection of these, including
the ‘best photographic productions’ recently
displayed at the International Exhibition held at
8
Specimen of printing types in use at the
Government Printing Office, Sydney
1882
Volume
NSW State Archives
NRS 4440/2/2
Sydney’s Garden Palace in 1879/80, would feature
in the album. The selection would contain ‘views of
the metropolis and harbour of Port Jackson [and]
include some of the loveliest prospects obtainable
from the Sydney Domain and Botanic Gardens’.
There would be ‘glimpses and views of the Garden
Palace and of Government House’. Public buildings
‘both metropolitan and provincial’ would be
How was it presented to the Queen? Did she
like it? And lastly, where is the album today?
These questions triggered a fully-fledged research
project to see what we could find in the State
Archives Collection that shed light on the origins
of the album and its journey to Queen Victoria
included as well as ‘views of private edifices ... a few
rural views, and a number of pictures of the wild
and majestic landscapes and waterfalls that border
the Southern and Western lines of railway on the
Blue Mountains and elsewhere’. Photographs of
‘great public works’ that speak ‘eloquently of the
at Windsor Castle.
resources of the Colony and of the enterprise of its
Precursory research into the Collection revealed
remarkable for their artistic excellence and printed
an 1882 GPO ‘specimen book’. A style guide of
typographies, fonts and designs, the book also
contained a detailed description of the Queen’s
album including a full list of 64 images, design
features and even a retelling of its presentation to
the monarch. This discovery was a breakthrough
and it set us well on the way to unlocking the story.
inhabitants’, would also be included. Views would be
in large scale at 2’6” x 2’.1
Richards tasked his most ‘talented’ staff with
the design and fabrication of the album and its
holding case. Once completed, the GPO proudly
reflected upon the album’s ‘exquisite’ form, ‘elegant’
binding and ‘handsome’ title page. The description
went further:
1
Two feet, six inches x two feet or 762mm x 610mm.
