Queen Victoria (1819-1901) - A Life in Images and on Film

Описание: At the end of the C19 and the beginning of the C20, film was a new emerging technology and, for some reason or other, I'm totally fascinated by those historical figures who just managed to be captured by the new medium -- people of whom we would have no moving record had the innovation developed just a short time later.

For me, the sensation is of time travel - as though I have jumped into a tardis or time machine, keyed in a figure of interest and a date, and then journeyed back over the decades.

I want to do a series of videos of people of historical interest who were just captured on film and or audio -- people you may not realise were recoded in these new technologies.

I hope this venture interests some others of you as much as it does me!

The first in this series is a compilation of some of the film that exists of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). Prior to each clip, I've added stills from the footage to locate the queen (circled) -- often the quality of the images is such that it's easy to miss the subject!

The first four clips were shot during the celebrations for her Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

The fifth clip was shot during the Queen's visit to Dublin in 1900, and shows her carriage stopping for the British monarch to receive a large bouquet of flowers from a young girl.

The sixth clip shows Queen Victoria arriving by carriage at a garden party in 1898. She is accompanied by the Princess of Wales, later Queen Mary.

The seventh clip again shows the queen in a carriage during a Diamond Jubilee occasion.

In the eighth clip, the queen is seen in a carriage, visiting Sheffield in 1897. She looks least like herself in this footage -- an impostor perhaps?

The ninth clip was shot at Balmoral in 1896 and the queen is outdoors being led in a carriage by a kilt clad gentleman, with members of her family, English and Indian courtiers and attendants ... and her dog present. At 6.52 can be seen Tsar Nicholas and his wife the Tsarina Alexandra - favourite granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

The tenth clip shows the funeral procession and cortege of Queen Victoria in 1901, with the mourners including King Edward VII and Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The music I've used to accompany this video is from Edward Elgar's 'Enigma Variations' (No. 9-12).

Enjoy!