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

ROGER FENTON (1819-69)

Victoria, the Princess Royal and Prince Arthur as 'Summer'

10 - 10 Feb 1854

Wet collodion negative | RCIN 2083654

Glass plate negative of a full length double portrait of Victoria, the Princess Royal, later Empress of Germany (1840-1901) and Prince Arthur, later Duke of Connaught (1850-1942). The Princess Royal reclines on cushions. She holds a sickle. Prince Arthur lies beside her. He wears a short tunic and there is a bundle of twigs beside him. The children are dressed as the embodiment of Summer for a Tableaux of the Seasons performed at Windsor.

The glass plate negative has been photographed showing the coated side and therefore the image appears laterally reversed. A print from this negative exists in the Collection, RCIN 2900027.
  • Creator(s)

    Roger Fenton (1819-69) (photographer)

    Subject(s)

    Empress Friedrich, German Empress and Queen of Prussia (1840-1901)
    Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught (1850-1942)
  • From the collection of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

  • Object type(s)
      • visual works
        • photographs
          • negatives
            • glass plate negatives