Inside Queen Victoria's family photo album: Intimate snaps of the monarch's husband and children among 200 images to appear in new exhibition



New exhibition includes 200 rare images from the Royal Archive

Queen Victoria amassed more than 20,000 photos during her life

Many are intimate family portraits, some featuring the Queen herself

Others document significant events such as the Crimean War

From the invention of the telephone to the bicycle and even the steam ship, the Victorian period saw a mini revolution in the field of science and technology.

But of all the new gadgets invented during her reign, it was the camera that delighted Queen Victoria the most.

By the time she died in 1901, the UK's first modern monarch had amassed a huge collection of more than 20,000 images that included everything from favourite landscapes to early war photography and touching snaps of pets, friends and children.

Family portrait: Queen Victoria and five of her children in an intimate snap taken by Roger Fenton in 1854



The Royal Family at home: An 1857 portrait of the Royal Family taken by Leonida Caldesi in 1857

Now some of the rarely seen photos from her archive are to be included in a fascinating new exhibition that documents Queen Victoria's passion for photography and offers a glimpse of the Royals' family photo album.

Although most of the photos remain in the Windsor Castle archive, 200 royal photos will appear at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, including many by early greats such as Roger Fenton, Leonida Caldesi and William Edward Kilburn.



Among them is a touching family portrait featuring Queen Victoria and five of her nine children; the Princess Royal, the Prince of Wales, Princess Alice, Princess Helena and Prince Alfred, taken in January 1852.

More show the Queen relaxing at Balmoral, spending time with her husband, Prince Albert, or posing for formal portraits during her widowhood.

Carefree childhood: Princesses Helena and Louise pictured playing in the garden by Roger Fenton in 1856

A Queen remembered: Victoria with Prince Albert in 1841 (left) and the Diamond Jubilee portrait of 1893



Not amused: Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught seems less than thrilled to be starring in this Caldesi photo

Other members of the Royal family also appear, among them Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, Queen Victoria's seventh child, and her consort, Prince Albert, both of whom appear in official photos.

Another, more intimate snap shows Princesses Helena and Louise in matching tartan ensembles in the garden at Balmoral during a summer jaunt.

But although family photos dominate, the Queen's interest in photography wasn't limited to pictures of her husband and children.

Photos of some of the Royal palaces, among them Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, appear as do snaps documenting some of the most important events of the Victorian period.

One, by William Henry Fox Talbot, shows Nelson's Column under construction in Trafalgar Square in 1844, while another chronicles the launch of the pioneering steamship, the Great Eastern, under the watchful eye of its designer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Favourite palace: This photo, dating from the 1880s, shows the Round Tower at Windsor Castle



Pioneer: This shot of Nelson's Column was taken by William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of the camera

Poignantly, another, snapped by court favourite Roger Fenton, shows the aftermath of the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War.

Considered one of the first war photographers, Fenton travelled to the Crimea under the patronage of Prince Albert and returned with 350 images, among them harrowing shots showing the carnage created by the Siege of Sevastopol and the Battle of Balaclava.



His famous photo, The Valley of Death, depicting the spot where the Light Brigade met its end is part of Victoria's collection, along with others documenting events such as the Indian Mutiny from around the Empire.

Although a keen collector, Queen Victoria never took any photographs of her own, although her children all embraced the medium.

But although she chose not to get involved in creating her own images, her penchant for collecting photos, as the new exhibition makes plain, helped preserve some of the most striking depictions of the Victorian period for future generations to enjoy.

A Royal Passion: Queen Victoria and Photography opens at the Getty Center in Los Angeles on 4th February. See getty.edu for more information

Innovation: Isambard Kingdom Brunel watching the launch of the steamship, Great Eastern, in 1857

Valley of the Shadow of Death: The cannonball littered aftermath of the Charge of the Light Brigade, 1855

ROGER FENTON: THE WORLD'S FIRST WAR PHOTOGRAPHER

From the Siege of Sevastopol to the Charge of the Light Brigade, Roger Fenton's striking shots taken in the Crimea are among the first war photographs ever taken. So who was the world's first war photographer? Born into a wealthy Lancashire family, Fenton was the fourth of seven children. He graduated with a degree in English, maths, Greek and Latin from Oxford University in 1840 and planned to study law before giving it up in favour of fine art. After stints in Paris, in the studio of Paul Delaroche and at the Louvre, he returned to London just in time for the Great Exhibition of 1851 where he discovered photography. Taught by early pioneer, Gustave Le Grey, within a year, Fenton was exhibiting his work nationwide and across Europe, and in 1853, helped found what would become the Royal Photographic Society under the patronage of Prince Albert. But it wasn't until war broke out in October 1853 between the British, Ottoman and French Empires on one side, and the Russian Empire on the other, that the photos that would define him in later years were taken. Encouraged by Prince Albert, he travelled to the Crimea, ostensibly to create photographs that would swing public opinion in favour of the unpopular war and counteract the critical reports being sent home by The Times' William Howard Russell. Based in the Crimea for just under 18 months, the 350 images he took are among the most enduring portraits of the Crimean War but did little to counter the negative public reaction. Much to his annoyance, when they went on sale following his return, the prints proved just as unpopular as the war itself with the paying public. His later career was spent travelling the length and breadth of the UK, creating stunning landscape photographs that proved far more commercially successful. In 1859, at his home in Potter's Bar in Hertfordshire, Fenton died after a week-long illness. He was just 50 years old.

