This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Glass plate negatives

Albert and Victoria’s collection of glass plate negatives show photographers’ working methods

Portraits

      Within Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s collection of glass plate negatives are portraits of various individuals significant to the royal couple. In addition to their extended family, including King Leopold I, the negatives feature, among many others, Maharajah Duleep Singh, Princess Gouramma of Coorg and Sarah Forbes Bonetta. This section is completed with a range of portraits featuring personalities that visited the royal couple and a series of actors in costume, including Charles Kean and a young Ellen Terry.