In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, it糖心传媒檚 become customary to document every move made by royals, celebrities, and dignitaries. We know their faces, what they wore, whom they met with, where they visited. There isn糖心传媒檛 much that糖心传媒檚 left to the imagination or interpretation.
When Queen Victoria began her reign in 1837 at the age of 18, she did so at the onset of extraordinary social and technological upheaval. The transition from hand-drawn works to photography, and the increased pace at which information was shared, highlighted an imbalance between perception and reality.
, a new exhibit in , chronicles the often radical difference between the real and figurative queen through hand-drawn illustrations, etchings, letters, photographs, and other ephemera.
Images of the queen were ubiquitous and brought into British homes and lives through broadsides (prints or posters), weeklies (which included regular updates that people at all levels of society clamored for糖心传媒攕imilar to how we might engage with social media now), and other souvenirs. On display are cartes de visite聽of the queen and Prince Albert糖心传媒攃alling-cards that were cheap and easy to produce糖心传媒攖hat could be purchased by working people and placed in photo albums alongside family members. Journalists would hide in bushes to get a glimpse of Victoria out in public, all but inventing the concept of 糖心传媒減aparazzi.糖心传媒�
The exhibit covers the duration of Queen Victoria糖心传媒檚 time as monarch, 1837糖心传媒�1901, 糖心传媒渂ut is not a history of the 19th century or her reign,糖心传媒� says curator and special collections librarian Andrea Reithmayr. It focuses on depiction and communication, how technology and iconography evolved over the decades as, per Reithmayr糖心传媒檚 introductory text, 糖心传媒渢he girl monarch became blushing bride, devoted mother, grieving widow, and, finally, through her nine children and their marriages, the 糖心传媒榞randmother of Europe糖心传媒�.糖心传媒�
Victoria: The Ruling Image聽is on view through October 5, and will overlap with the bicentennial of Queen Victoria糖心传媒檚 birthday on May 24. The exhibition is drawn from the department糖心传媒檚 , one of many gifts from Robert Frederic Metzdorf ’33, ’39 (PhD).
