Antique Image of the Day: Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal, 1845

Queen Victoria and
The Princess Royal
1845
The Royal Colelction

This is the earliest known photograph of Queen Victoria. The Queen was an avid fan of photography, even going as far as staging a recreation of her wedding day so that it might be photographed.


Here, we see a young Queen Victoria with her first child and daughter, Victoria, the Princess Royal who was known to the family as “Vicky.” At the age of seventeen, Vicky was wed to Prince William Frederick of Prussia. She was later the Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia.

Queen Victoria had a great affection for her eldest daughter, making sure that she was created Princess Royal, a title often bestowed upon the eldest daughter of a Royal family. Victoria praised her child’s curiosity and intelligence—two traits which were not demonstrated in Victoria’s eldest son, the heir presumptive, Prince Albert Edward (later King Edward VII).