Grand Ladies

The term "Victorian" is an Anglophone word that applies to the reign of Queen Victoria between 1837 and 1901. I use the words "Early Victorian" to mean an era characterized by wide dresses, supported after about 1857 by metal hoop cages called "crinolines" (click here for the origin of the word "crinoline"). However, this period spans other cultural eras - namely the later part of the Romantic Era that spanned from 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, to 1850, when the Industrial Revolution really took over. In the German world, the period from 1815 to 1848 is called "Biedermeier."

Fashion evolved from Empire styles to wide skirts and huge sleeves between 1815 and 1836 and I believe that a form set in in 1837 that steadily evolved through 1869. In 1889 dresses developed bustle-like shapes that solidified in the early 1870s. I close the Early Victorian era with 1870, the year the Franco-Prussian War broke out that would end the Second Empire. The bustle was already entrenching itself when the Franco-Prussian War changed history for another 119 years (the aftermath finally settled out with the formation of the EU and the fall of the Berlin Wall).

This is a big set of images for four reasons. First, more dresses and art survive from this period because it is so recent. Second, more portrait artists were working leaving a lush record, especially of evening and special occasion dresses. Third, the technology of printing evolved so there are numerous prints and illustrated papers, especially The Illustrated London News that I just call "ILN" in my files, that print images are widely available. Finally, last but most important, Louis Daguerre invented photogrphy and it was made openly available in 1839. Even before George Eastman invented the snapshot ("Kodak") camera and roll film, photography made it very easy to proliferate the number of portraits and images. Others developed cartes de visite and cabinet cards with celebrity images that are frequently sold on eBay.

Let's go!

The albums are: 

"Early" "Victorian" - 1837 - 1870  - with discrete images as well as these subalbums:

Ada, Countess of Lovelace ,

Penelope Smyth, Princess of Capua and her daughter Vittoria,  NEW

Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland,

Queen Victoria,

Victoire, Duchesse de Nemours,

Princess Clémentine d'Orléans ,

Adélaïde d'Orléans,

Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  NEW

Queen Sophie of the Netherlands,

Marie of Baden, Duchess of Hamilton,

Louise Marie Thérese de Bourbon, Duchess of Parma,

Angela Georgina Burdett Coutts,

Marie Caroline Auguste of the Two Siciles, Duchesse d'Aumale,

Maria Adelaide of Austria, Queen of Sardinia,

Maria Anna Leopoldine of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony,  NEW

Queen Marie of Bavaria,  NEW

Princess Leonilla of Sayn Wittgenstein Sayn, née Bariatinsky,

Louise Marie d'Orleans, Queen of the Belgians,

Elizabeth Mikhailovna ,

Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande, Grand Duchess of Tuscany,

Maria Theresia of Austria-Este-Chambord,

Infanta Luísa Fernanda, Duchesse de Montpensier,

Françoise of Braganza, Princesse de Joinville,

Louise Rasmussen, Countess Danner,

Queen Louise of Denmark, "Grandmother of Europe",

Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen of Hanover,  NEW

Empress Eugenie that has these Albumettes -

Albumette:  Dresses Worn by Empress Eugénie 

Albumette:  People Associated with Empress Eugénie

Princess Mathilde,

Queen Olga of Wuerttemberg,

Empress Elisabeth of Austria and her Sisters that has these Albumettes -

Albumette:  Empress Elisabeth of Austria - Sissi that has this collection:

Collection:  1867 Empress Elisabeth's Hungarian Coronation

Albumette:  Helene of Thurn und Taxis and Mathilde Trani,

Albumette:  Marie Sophie Wittelsbach, Queen of the Two Sicilies,

Albumette:  Sophie Charlotte, Duchesse d'Alencon.

The Potocka Ladies,

Sophie and Elizaveta Trubetezkaya,

Countess of Castiglione,

Princess Luise of Baden,

Melanie de Bussiere, comtesse de Pourtalès,

Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska,

Princess Royal Victoria and Princesses Alice, Helena, and Louise - Queen Victoria's older daughters that has these Albumettes -

Albumette:  Princess Royal Victoria,

Albumette:  Princess Alice,

Albumette:  Princesses Helena and Louise.

Princess Ludovica Teresa Maria Clotilde, called Clotilde, Bonaparte, née Savoia,

Queen Louise (Lovisa) of Sweden, née Netherlands,

Princess Anna Murat,

Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxe-Weimar, née Netherlands,

Infanta Antonia of Portugal,

Sophie Marie of Saxony,

Queen Augusta of Prussia, reluctant first Empress of united Germany,

Anne, Duchess of Sutherland,

Princess Alexandrine of Prussia (1842–1906),

Empress Carlota,

Queen of the Belgians Maria Hendrika,

Maria Vittoria dal Pozo,

Leontine von Fürstenberg,  NEW

Marie Isabelle, Comtesse de Paris,

Princess Mary of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck,

Princess Marie of Hanover, 

Maria Annunziata of the Two Sicilies, and

Princess Marie of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, Princess of Flanders.