The surrounding crowd applauded as the image was shared to the Royal Instagram account that has more than 4.5 million followers. The account was launched in 2013 and is regularly updated by staff members, who post news and updates about the work of the queen and other members of the royal family. Today marks the first time the queen has updated the account herself.

The queen, who was on a visit to open the new Smith Center at the museum and announce a major summer exhibition, published her first post to the Royal Family’s Instagram account, writing:

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"Today, as I visit the Science Museum I was interested to discover a letter from the Royal Archives, written in 1843 to my great-great-grandfather Prince Albert. Charles Babbage, credited as the world’s first computer pioneer, designed the ‘Difference Engine,’ of which Prince Albert had the opportunity to see a prototype in July 1843. "

“In the letter, Babbage told Queen Victoria and Prince Albert about his invention the ‘Analytical Engine’ upon which the first computer programmes were created by Ada Lovelace, a daughter of Lord Byron,” the queen’s post continued. “Today, I had the pleasure of learning about children’s computer coding initiatives and it seems fitting to me that I publish this Instagram post, at the Science Museum which has long championed technology, innovation and inspired the next generation of inventors.”

The queen signed off the post with her iconic signature: Elizabeth R.

According to the museum, its new exhibition “Top Secret” will explore over a century’s worth of communications intelligence through handwritten documents, declassified files and previously unseen artifacts.

In 1958, the queen made her first telephone call, and in 1976 she sent her first email from an army military base. The British monarchy website was launched by the queen in 1997, and, in 2014, the queen allegedly sent her first tweet from the Science Museum. Some are skeptical as to whether the queen did in fact send the tweet, arguing that she had help from a palace aide.

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Earlier this week new social media guidelines were published by the royal family in a bid to tackle vicious comments being left by online trolls. In recent months both Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, have been the subject of hateful comments posted to official royal social media accounts.

Users found to be flouting the new policy will be deleted, blocked and possibly reported to law enforcement.