The Queen's Album

ii

iii

The Queen’s Album explores the unique story of an album of 

photographs gifted to Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in 1882 on 

behalf of the people of NSW. 

In 2018, this photograph album was identified as the original prototype of an album presented 

to Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in 1882. On Friday 17 December 1880, the Sydney 

Morning Herald announced that a large album of photographs had been produced by the 

Government of NSW to be presented to Her Majesty the Queen on behalf of the people of the 

colony. 

Described as a ‘marvel of sumptuous binding’ in purple velvet, the cover was decorated with 

the royal monogram in richly chased silver, and its corners were protected by elaborate silver 

scroll work. Containing 56 ‘unusually large’ photographs depicting the choicest scenes of 

‘city, harbour, mountain, river, and spreading plain’, it was created to give Her Majesty ‘a 

favourable idea of one of the greatest of her Colonial dependencies’. 

Despite the hype and excitement surrounding its production, the Queen’s Album would not 

leave the colony for at least another year. In December 1881 the NSW Government Printer 

Thomas Richards finally received instructions to forward the album to the NSW Agent 

General Saul Samuel in London. 

The album – now with a ruby red velvet cover and eight additional photographs – was 

presented to Queen Victoria on 27 February 1882. The Queen recorded the event in her diary, 

noting that the album, ‘a present from the Colony, is very pretty’. 

Unfortunately, the current whereabouts of this album is unknown. 

Website • Facebook • VISITOR eMag

Curated by Penny Stannard and Bonnie Wildie

The Queen’s Album 

Exhibition dates 

24 May to 16 June 2019 

Government House, Sydney 

Exhibition catalogue 

Published by NSW State Archives 

PO Box 516, Kingswood NSW 2747, Australia 

records.nsw.gov.au 

info@records.nsw.gov.au 

© NSW State Archives, 2019 

A catalogue record for this 

book is available from the 

National Library of Australia 

Creator: Stannard, Penny, author. 

Title: The Queen’s Album / Penny Stannard (curator/ author); 

Bonnie Wildie (assistant curator/author). 

ISBN 978-0-6481110-4-7 

(ebook) 

Other Creators/Contributors: 

Mosquera, Maria, book designer. 

NSW State Archives. issuing body. 

This publication is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne Convention. 

Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism 

or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced 

by any persons without written permission from NSW State Archives.

Contents 

FOREWORD 5 

THE QUEEN’S ALBUM: 6 

A 19 TH CENTURY PICTORIAL EXPRESSION 

OF OPTIMISM, POSSIBILITY AND IDENTITY 

WILD AND MAJESTIC LANDSCAPES 21 

PASTORAL VISTAS 25 

CIVILISING NATURE 28 

PRIVATE WORLDS 33 

EXOTIC LANDSCAPES 36 

3 

INSTITUTIONS OF STATE 40 

INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH 46 

MIGHTY EMPIRE 50 

LIST OF WORKS 55 

FURTHER READING 57 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 60

4 

Alexander Bassano 

Queen Victoria 

1882 

Glass plate negative 

© National Portrait Gallery, London 

x95818

foreword 

The Queen’s Album is a unique exhibition project that has been curated and produced 

by New South Wales State Archives. It explores an event from 1882, nearly 140 years ago: 

a special gift from the people of the Colony of New South Wales (NSW) to Queen Victoria. 

This was a large and beautifully crafted album featuring photographic images of NSW. 

The photographs depicted advancements made by the Colony in architecture, engineering, 

science, industry and the arts. Much more than documentary accounts of the Colony’s 

progress, the album’s photographs were – as the Queen herself noted – works of art. 

Given that the album was produced by the NSW Government Printing Office, there is 

a range of relevant and compelling original material concerning its creation in the 

State Archives Collection, which is one of Australia’s most significant cultural holdings. 

In researching and developing the exhibition, our staff made a number of exciting 

discoveries, which are detailed in this e-publication. It also led to the question of the 

whereabouts of the album today. This ‘history mystery’ has grown to become an additional 

storyline within the project and one that we are hoping to solve with help from the public. 

The Queen’s Album has provided an opportunity for the NSW State Archives to contribute 

to the events and discussions taking place to mark 200 years since the birth of Queen Victoria. 

Born on 24 May 1819, Victoria ruled over the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for 

63 years. Her reign, which commenced in 1837 and ended at her death in 1901 – the same year 

as the Federation of Australia – encompassed a period of profound change and growth in NSW. 

5 

The Queen’s Album also places NSW State Archives as a participant in the resurgence of 

international interest in royalty from the past and present. 

The Queen’s Album exhibition will premiere at Government House in May/June 2019, 

during the hugely popular Vivid Sydney and then tour throughout regional NSW. 

This e-publication supports the exhibition and is available through a range of NSW 

State Archives’ online platforms. 

Thank you to the dedicated, expert staff at NSW State Archives, to our supportive Board and 

to the Hon Don Harwin MLC, Special Minister of State, Minister for the Public Service and 

Employee Relations, Aboriginal Affairs, and the Arts, and Vice-President of the Executive 

Council, who, both individually and through the government, provides tremendous support 

to our institution. 

Whether you attend the exhibition in person, or engage with it online, we trust that you will 

enjoy The Queen’s Album. 

Dr Brian Lindsay 

Chair, NSW State Archives Board 

Adam Lindsay 

Executive Director, NSW State Archives

the queen’s album: 

A 19 th Century pictorial expression of optimism, 

possibility and identity 

6 

At Windsor Castle on 27 February 1882 Queen 

Victoria received a special gift from the people 

of New South Wales (NSW). Encased in an ornate 

wooden box was a large book clad in purple velvet 

embellished with elaborate silver mountings. 

As she opened the cover and turned the pages of 

the heavy tome, Victoria would have seen a faraway 

place: a land where ancient landscapes, sites of 

‘civilisation’ and symbols of Empire coalesced 

under a sharp light and clear bright sky. This, no 

ordinary armchair selection of late-19 th Century 

photographs was the ‘Queen’s album’, gifted to 

her as an expression of the spirit of optimism 

and possibility that defined the Colony of NSW. 

At the time, the album was gifted as a tribute 

of loyalty to the 63 year old monarch. Today, its 

whereabouts are unknown. 

This is the story of the Queen’s album: its 

creation nearly 140 years ago and its reimagining 

through a NSW State Archives exhibition project, 

The Queen’s Album.

Statue of Prince Albert 

1871 


NSW State Archives 

NRS 4481 SH209 

(left) 

Government House 

c. 1880 



NRS 4481 SH291 

7 

AN ALBUM, 

AN ANNIVERSARY 

It was while developing another exhibition, 

Windows into Wartime, in 2016 that we first 

came across newspaper reports from the early 

1880s detailing how an album of photographs had 

been gifted to Queen Victoria on behalf of the people 

of NSW. The album and its photographs—like those 

featured in Windows into Wartime—had been 

produced by the NSW Government Printing Office 

(GPO). Its photographic department had developed 

a vast and impressive body of work featuring people, 

places and events in NSW over 120 years from its 

establishment in the 1860s until its closure in 1988. 

Given that the GPO had been a NSW Government 

agency, its records are held in the State Archives 

Collection. 

Knowing that the 200 th anniversary of the birth of 

Queen Victoria would be marked on 24 May 2019, 

and that there has been a renewed interest in 

the story of this monarch—most notably through 

the hit television drama series, Victoria, which 

premiered in 2016, and the feature film Victoria 

and Abdul (2017)—there was an opportunity for 

NSW State Archives to contribute to the creation 

of contemporary ‘Victoria’ culture. A curated 

exhibition project would provide the perfect 

platform through which to do this. 

The more and more we read contemporary 

accounts of the creation and gifting of the album to 

Queen Victoria, the more our curiosity was sparked. 

Whose idea was it? What were its instigators 

hoping to achieve? Which images were selected for 

inclusion? Why these and not others? Who crafted 

the album and what was special about its design?

HER MAJESTY’S GIFT: 

A GRACEFUL TRIBUTE 

OF LOYALTY 

The idea of presenting an album to Queen Victoria 

originated with Sir Henry Parkes, Premier and 

Colonial Secretary of NSW, in late-1880. For Parkes, 

the album would represent a ‘graceful tribute 

of loyalty’ and ‘a pictorial representation of the 

characteristic features of one of the greatest of 

[Her Majesty’s] Colonial possessions’. He charged 

Thomas Richards, the Government Printer of the 

Colony, with responsibility for the album’s design 

and fabrication. 

8 

Specimen of printing types in use at the 

Government Printing Office, Sydney 

1882 

Volume 


NRS 4440/2/2 

How was it presented to the Queen? Did she 

like it? And lastly, where is the album today? 

These questions triggered a fully-fledged research 

project to see what we could find in the State 

Archives Collection that shed light on the origins 

of the album and its journey to Queen Victoria 

at Windsor Castle. 

Precursory research into the Collection revealed 

an 1882 GPO ‘specimen book’. A style guide of 

typographies, fonts and designs, the book also 

contained a detailed description of the Queen’s 

album including a full list of 64 images, design 

features and even a retelling of its presentation to 

the monarch. This discovery was a breakthrough 

and it set us well on the way to unlocking the story. 

By 1880 the GPO photographic department had 

amassed a collection of some 800 ‘views’ of NSW. 

It was decided that a selection of these, including 

the ‘best photographic productions’ recently 

displayed at the International Exhibition held at 

Sydney’s Garden Palace in 1879/80, would feature 

in the album. The selection would contain ‘views of 

the metropolis and harbour of Port Jackson [and] 

include some of the loveliest prospects obtainable 

from the Sydney Domain and Botanic Gardens’. 

There would be ‘glimpses and views of the Garden 

Palace and of Government House’. Public buildings 

‘both metropolitan and provincial’ would be 

included as well as ‘views of private edifices ... a few 

rural views, and a number of pictures of the wild 

and majestic landscapes and waterfalls that border 

the Southern and Western lines of railway on the 

Blue Mountains and elsewhere’. Photographs of 

‘great public works’ that speak ‘eloquently of the 

resources of the Colony and of the enterprise of its 

inhabitants’, would also be included. Views would be 

remarkable for their artistic excellence and printed 

in large scale at 2’6” x 2’. 1 

Richards tasked his most ‘talented’ staff with 

the design and fabrication of the album and its 

holding case. Once completed, the GPO proudly 

reflected upon the album’s ‘exquisite’ form, ‘elegant’ 

binding and ‘handsome’ title page. The description 

went further: 

1 

Two feet, six inches x two feet or 762mm x 610mm.

The edges of the album are gilt; the covers 

are heavy and bevelled. The treatment of 

the binding is chaste in the extreme, the 

linings being of white watered satin and the 

coverings of ruby velvet. The mountings are 

of silver, in bold relief, wrought in repoussé 

and finished in bright, dead, and chased work; 

the ornamentation consisting of interlaced 

foliated corner-pieces of elaborate design— 

the polished edges of which embrace and 

strengthen the cover—and of a large and 

graceful centre-piece, representing the Royal 

monogram, designed to harmonize with 

the rest of the silver work. 

Picton Viaduct over Stonequarry Creek 

1870 



NRS 4481 SH1117 

The album is deposited in a case made of 

Colonial woods, which is in itself a gem of art. 

The lid has a plate-glass panel, and the sides 

9

consist of panels and rich marginal borders, 

the fillets, mouldings, and panels being all 

of different kinds of fancy woods of a yellow 

and brownish hue, the principal mouldings 

set cross-grained, and the colours beautifully 

contrasted … The front and lid of the case are 

made to lift together; the album rests on a 

sliding shelf which can be manipulated with 

ease; the inside of the case is padded and lined 

with puce satin; and the case is provided with 

a handsome silver key. The general effect is 

strikingly rich—everything about the case 

and its contents being perfectly artistic 

and harmonious. 

In mid-December 1880, newspapers began 

reporting that the NSW Government was planning 

to send a ‘beautiful album … in an equally beautiful 

case’ to Queen Victoria. Rumours were that the 

album would be displayed at the Melbourne 

International Exhibition in 1880/81 prior to its 

departure overseas. Some Sydney Morning Herald 

letter writers suggested that as the album was 

to be gifted on behalf of the people of NSW, it 

should be available for that state’s constituents 

to view first before Melbournians. 

Although the album was ready to be dispatched 

in February 1881, it did not leave Australia’s shores 

until December. The delay was caused by the 

decision to add eight new photographs. These 

depicted the Royal Navy’s sham fight held near 

Mrs Macquarie’s Chair on 12 April 1881 and the 

arrival of its Detached Squadron on 6 July 1881 

with Queen Victoria’s grandsons, Prince George 

and Prince Albert, on board. The initial album of 

56 photographs was discarded and a new album 

of 64 photographs—incorporating the naval activity 

scenes—duly fabricated. It was this second, larger 

album that was shipped out to Britain on the Cuzco. 

On 27 February 1882 the Agent General of NSW, 

Saul Samuel, presented the album to Queen Victoria. 

10

11 

Copy of the Choragic Monument 

of Lysicrates (Sir James Martin’s 

residence, Potts Point) 

c. 1880 



NRS 4481 SH1539 

(left) 

Naval Sham Fight under Commodore 

Wilson, 12 th April, 1881 

1881 

Glass plate negative [detail] 


NRS 4481 SH1455 

Her Majesty, in reply, graciously informed 

Mr. Samuel that she was very pleased to accept 

such a beautiful specimen of the workmanship 

of the Colony, to which she felt greatly obliged 

for its handsome gift. She desired Mr. Samuel 

to convey her thanks to the Government of 

the Colony for their consideration, and to add 

that she held in high appreciation their loyalty 

and affection for her person. She was pleased 

to examine the album with Mr. Samuel, and 

expressed her admiration of the photographs, 

both as representations of beautiful scenery 

and as works of art. Mr. Samuel afterwards 

lunched in the castle, as is the custom with 

all Her Majesty's guests at Windsor.

12 

SCENES TO IDENTIFY, 

PHOTOGRAPHS TO 

SOURCE 

As mentioned, the 1882 GPO specimen book 

contained a list of the 64 photographs featured 

in the Queen’s album. It listed these primarily 

by location, and in some cases, by date. We 

cross-referenced this list against entries in 

GPO photographic registers from the same period, 

which are held in the State Archives Collection. 

The registers often list several shots of a particular 

scene, so we needed to be sure which of these 

was the actual photograph featured in the album. 

It was also important to find out whether there 

were other albums made by the GPO at the time 

containing similar photographs. We may even 

happen upon the album itself tucked away in an 

archive or library! As we searched the catalogues 

of collections in Australia and elsewhere, we 

found an album at the State Library of NSW: 

Collection of photographs presented for 

the acceptance of Her Most Gracious Majesty 

Queen Victoria by the Government on behalf 

of the people of New South Wales 

1880 

Volume - title page 

State Library of NSW 

X981/3

Public offices 

c. 1880 

Collodion negative 


A4078/A4053 

(left) 

Collection of photographs presented 

for the acceptance of Her Most 

Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria 

by the Government on behalf of 

the people of New South Wales 

1880 

Volume - cover 


X981/3 

a large tome measuring approximately 1’7” x 2’ 

x 4”, weighing 3 st. 2 It contained 56 photographs, 

all with the same titles, dates and scenes listed as 

being in the Queen’s album – excepting the eight 

naval scenes from 1881. This album’s design and 

embellishments matched those detailed in the GPO 

specimen book. So, too, did its title page. It even had 

the purple velvet cover – albeit faded and worn thin. 

And the once-glistening silver work that centred on 

the ‘VR’ monogram was still evident despite severe 

tarnishing. We concluded that this was likely to be 

the first album created for Queen Victoria in 1880. 

With the State Library of NSW discovery, we 

now knew the majority of the scenes featured 

in the Queen’s album. The next step was to find 

out whether there were any surviving glass 

plate negatives among the 14 million items in the 

State Archives Collection. Guided by the GPO 

photographic registers and armed with copies of 

prints from the State Library of NSW’s album, we 

were able to match positive with negative. To our 

delight, we found 48 original glass plate negatives 

in the Collection dating from the 1870s to 1881. 

PLATES OF GLASS: 

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC 

NEGATIVES 

As our conservators retrieved the 10” x 12” 3 glass 

plate photographic negatives from their protective 

crates and carefully laid them on light boxes, 

moments from 140 years ago suddenly appeared. 

We could look into the sweeping land and streetscapes 

and make out time-telling details: a horse 

and buggy, a clutter of masts and sails, corseted 

parasol-carrying women. Interrupting the scenes 

were tell-tale signs of age, wear and tear. As 

collodion wet plates, the negatives have all suffered 

damage. One has become detached from the glass 

plate. Reactions to humidity and moisture have 

resulted in planar distortion and cracking. All are 

scratched with small losses and some have silver 

mirroring. A few have significant breaks, including 

the loss of the glass substrate. 

13 

2 

One foot, seven inches x two feet x four inches, weighing 

three stone, or 480mm x 600mm x 100mm, weighing 20kg. 

3 

Ten inches x twelve inches or 254mm x 305mm.

14

15 

Katoomba – The Sisters 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH1684

16 

The negatives also showed the various techniques 

used by photographers to perfect the image for 

print. In some cases the non-emulsion side is 

masked with paper adhered or taped in place, 

and painted masking. In others, pencil has been 

used on the emulsion side to provide definition 

around particular parts of the image. Such editing 

techniques were employed to make skies appear 

clearer, waterfalls more glistening and shapes 

sharper. These, it would seem, were not simply 

documentary photographs. They were carefully 

constructed images designed to portray NSW 

as a desirable place – an ideal. The cloudless, 

sun-drenched skies and ‘pure’ natural resources 

seen in the photographs would have provided 

stark contrast to the hazed and polluted 

atmosphere of industrial Britain. 

The Garden Palace 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH331

At the time of their creation, the negatives were 

developed in a dark room environment. Today, this 

is done using digital technologies. Techniques that 

were once used to manipulate the image now affect 

a different outcome. For example, masking fluid 

painted on negatives to heighten black and white 

tonal qualities appear as a red, rust colour on the 

digitised image. These insights into the glass plate 

negative as a working tool came as a surprise to us, 

and we made a conscious decision to work with the 

images uncorrected. 

Having discovered 48 glass plate negatives in 

the State Archives Collection that were an exact 

match with images in the Queen’s album (plus 

an additional three that were near-matches), we 

looked elsewhere to find the remaining negatives. 

Unsuccessful, we secured digital copies of the prints 

contained in the State Library of NSW’s 1880 

album. With all but one of the images digitised, 

we could begin reimagining the Queen’s album 

through the exhibition project. But we were still 

left with the question of the whereabouts of 

the 1882 Queen’s album. 

A HISTORY MYSTERY: 

WHERE IS THE 

QUEEN’S ALBUM? 

Our search for the 1882 Queen’s album has spanned 

cultural collections in Australia and overseas. 

Curators, archivists and librarians from the Royal 

Collection Trust—custodian of the Royal Collection, 

which incorporates the private archives of the 

British Royal Family—British Library, Bodleian 

Library, National Archives (UK), State Library of 

NSW and National Library of Australia have assisted 

us, but our search has not yet yielded a result. 

We have decided to turn to the public, and to the 

platform of social media to help us solve this ‘history 

mystery’. Our access to newspaper reports from 

the early-1880s detailing the creation and gifting 

of the Queen’s album was made possible through 

the National Library of Australia’s online database, 

Trove. This platform enables users to curate lists 

of their findings and share this with the public – 

17 

Image samples from The Queen's 

Album social media campaign, 2019, 

from Collection of photographs 

presented for the acceptance of 

Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen 

Victoria by the Government on behalf 

of the people of New South Wales 

1880 

Volume - text detail, coloured 


X981/3 

(left, above) 

Botanic Gardens 

1879 



NRS 4481 SH436

18 

a kind of ‘open scholarship’. Through this process, 

we established The Queen’s Album Trove list, 

which collated a selection of the articles that had 

assisted us in our research (see https://trove.nla. 

gov.au/list?id=125289). As we reappraised articles, 

one from the Evening News on 19 April 1882 stood 

out. It noted that when the Agent General, Saul 

Samuel, presented the album to Queen Victoria 

on 27 February, it was accompanied by ‘a watercolour 

drawing of the town and harbour of Sydney, 

which her Majesty was graciously pleased to accept’. 

A recent search of the Royal Collection Trust 

catalogue for watercolours from the period 

revealed Sydney: the town and harbour, 1879, 

by Edward Baker Boulton. This, it would seem, 

was the ‘drawing’ presented to Victoria with the 

album. The whereabouts of the album, however, 

at this point, remains unknown. 

Post-colonialism has ushered in a rethinking 

of the role and authority of State-run cultural 

institutions, particularly in relation to how 

collections have been developed and interpreted 

through practices and frameworks that have their 

roots in a 19 th Century world view. In this context, 

publics are passive recipients to be imparted with 

an institution’s knowledge, expertise and power: 

to be ‘educated’ and ‘civilised’. Contemporary 

approaches, however, see the public and audiences 

as partners; co-contributors to research, 

interpretation and knowledge-making. Social 

media and other interactive online spaces provide 

a vehicle for institutions to open up a dialogue with 

the public, with the aim of enhancing and sharing 

the knowledge and understanding that they have of 

their collections. This is the approach that we have 

adopted here. A social media campaign has been 

put into place inviting the public to help us solve 

the mystery of the Queen’s album. A series of posts 

that link to The Queen’s Album Trove list compel 

our ‘sleuths’ to read, transcribe, share and tag 

reports and accounts of the album. It is anticipated 

that word of our quest will spread, fuelled by the 

interest in the 200 th anniversary of the birth of 

Queen Victoria and the renewed popularity that her 

descendants—the current British Royal Family—are 

now enjoying. We hope that someone, somewhere, 

will know where the album is. Then, we can reunite 

it with the people of NSW. 

A REIMAGINING: 

THE QUEEN’S ALBUM 

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great 

Britain and Ireland, ruled from 20 June 1837 

to 22 January 1901. In NSW, her 63 year reign 

overarched and shaped fundamental social, 

political, cultural and economic developments. 

The Colony, which had been established to exile 

and punish Britain’s felons, transformed itself 

from a penal experiment to a free and enterprising 

society during Victoria’s rule. It built its success 

on the land’s natural resources—while dispossessing 

Indigenous people of their lands and culture—and 

the adoption of technological advancements made 

possible by the Industrial Revolution. In NSW 

and other ‘colonial possessions’, progress was 

to be celebrated and expressed through symbols 

of civilisation: edifices constructed to promote 

knowledge, engineering feats, scientific inquiry, 

the cultivation of nature and displays of Imperial 

power and benevolence. 

Victoria never visited NSW or Australia, instead 

relying on reports from her envoys and extended 

family members who did. She understood the 

Colony through the lens of others. Sir Henry Parkes 

sought to advance the narrative of progress to 

the Queen, and in doing so, receive Her Majesty’s 

affirmation that NSW was an exemplar of Empire 

and loyalty to the Crown. 

Photography, which was fast-evolving in its 

technology and popularity in the late-19 th 

Century, offered not only the means to faithfully 

represent a subject, but one which could be 

shaped towards an aesthetic or agenda. 

As we interpret the photographs in the Queen’s

album, we can see how these dual elements work 

hand-in-hand. 

The Queen’s Album reimagines the album which 

was gifted to Queen Victoria on behalf of the 

people of NSW in 1882. It presents a selection of 

photographs from the 64 scenes featured in the 

album accompanied by brief interpretive overviews. 

Today, we can only guess at how Victoria imagined 

NSW through these photographs. As we see what 

she saw, we can imagine our place 140 years ago. 

And as we understand our past, we can dream 

of our future. 

Fern Trees, Mount Wilson 

c. 1880 

Black and white photograph 


X981/3 

19

20

Falling water, sheer cliffs, impenetrable 

bush and secret gorges. 

21 

Katoomba – Falls 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH1682

22 

The Blue Mountains offered ‘a serious kind of 

beauty’ to define the essential features of the 

Australian landscape. Katoomba Falls, the Grose 

Valley, Mount Victoria, Govetts Leap and Mount 

Wilson—all Blue Mountains sites—featured in the 

original Queen’s album. These wild and sublime 

landscapes were popular in the late-19 th Century 

viewer market as people sought a sense of relief 

from their increasingly urban lives. As train travel 

allowed people to visit such destinations, relief 

became reality. 

Mount Victoria 

c. 1880 



NRS 4481 SH404 

(right) 

Valley of the Grose 

1875 



X981/3

23

24

A more lovely sight 

could not be desired. 

25 

Emu Plains, showing Nepean River 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH1678

‘A grand panorama soon spreads out before us as 

we ascend the giddy height, and look down on the 

Valley of the Nepean.’ This was the view described 

by tourists travelling by train from Sydney to the 

Blue Mountains looking out over Penrith and 

Emu Plains. As the Nepean River, the orchards it 

nourished and the smattering of homesteads that 

skirted out from ‘quaint old’ Penrith town melded, 

tourists were reassured that the Colony’s land could 

not only be cultivated for food, but also for pleasure. 

26

27 

Emu Plains, showing Nepean River 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH1679 

(left) 

View in Penrith 

c. 1880 



NRS 4481 SH415

28 

Conquering nature enabled 

the Crown to further assert 

its territorial claim. 

Saddle Cutting, near Bargo Lagoons 

c. 1880 



NRS 4481 SH932

29

30

Knapsack Gully Viaduct 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH1685 

31 

(left) 

Old Bridge, Lapstone Hill 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH1688 

Buoyed by advancements in technology, NSW 

embarked on a ‘spirited’ program of public 

works in the second half of the 19 th Century. 

Engineers cut and tunnelled ranges, and bridged 

valleys to access and link once-impassable lands 

in the Colony’s north, west and south. Driven by 

railway construction, this complex and largescale 

endeavour has been described as the 

‘new imperialism’.

32

Well-positioned properties were 

built to house and host the powerful. 

33 

Faulconbridge, Blue Mountains 

(Sir Henry Parkes) 

c. 1880 



NRS 4481 SH1696

34 

Public leaders replicated in NSW the tradition 

of the English country estate. Sir Henry Parkes 

and Sir James Martin built impressive houses set 

high in the Blue Mountains framed by landscaped 

gardens. These properties provided a haven from 

city life and a place to host dignitaries. Elsewhere, 

sprawling, well-positioned residences overlooked 

Sydney Harbour. Large private estates were a 

luxury of the elite and symbolised the power and 

status they held within the Colony and the Empire. 

Numantia, Blue Mountains 

(Sir James Martin) 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH1699

35 

Glanworth, Darling Point 

(The Honorable James Watson) 

1880 



NRS 4481 SH1709

36 

Come see the wilderness garden made! 


1879 



NRS 4481 SH444

37

38 

Cultivating the ‘exotic’ was a powerful symbol of 

19 th Century colonial advancement. The Botanic 

Gardens represented an expression of this agenda 

writ large, more so when it became the site of the 

1879 Sydney International Exhibition building, 

the Garden Palace. As the grand, bold structures 

of Victorian-era Sydney juxtaposed the Garden’s 

curated wilderness, ordinary people and even 

the Queen herself, could take reassurance that 

the path of progress was well on its way in NSW. 


1879 



NRS 4481 SH443

39 


1879 



NRS 4481 SH439

40 

Reflecting and harnessing the optimism 

and growth of the Colony. 

Free Public Library 

1877 



NRS 4481 SH470

41

42 

Museum 

1870 



NRS 4481 SH564

43

44

School of Arts, Bathurst 

c. 1880 



X981/3 

45 

The Victorian faith in knowledge as the key to 

progress and prosperity took form in the Free 

Public Library and new Australian Museum College 

Street wing designed by Colonial Architect James 

Barnet in the 1860s. These and other institutions of 

State including the Colonial Secretary’s Building— 

also designed by Barnet—were part of an ambitious 

public works program that reflected and harnessed 

the optimism and growth of the Colony. In building 

places of learning and discovery—from schools 

of arts to major cultural institutions—the State 

could ensure that its population was civilised, 

sophisticated and able to proudly claim its place 

in the British Empire.

46

47 

A powerhouse to grow 

the Colony’s wealth. 

Newcastle showing railway lines 

c. 1880 

Black and white photograph [detail] 


X981/3

48

49 

Newcastle Custom House 

c. 1880 



X981/3 

(left) 

Newcastle 

c. 1880 

Black and white photograph [detail] 


X981/3 

Newcastle, where the Hunter River meets the 

Pacific Ocean, became an industrial powerhouse 

during Queen Victoria’s reign. Natural resources 

aplenty, the city’s economy was founded on 

coal. Maritime ports and the completion of the 

Great Northern Railway in the 1860s expanded 

Newcastle’s export markets and grew the local 

population. Banking houses, public buildings and 

places of business—including the James Barnet 

designed Italianate Renaissance Revival style 

Custom House completed in 1877—expressed 

the city’s economic and civic progress.

50 

A welcome of true and unchangeable 

loyalty to the Crown.

51 

Naval Sham Fight under 

Commodore Wilson, 12 th April, 1881 

1881 



NRS 4481 SH1455 

Concerned with potential aggressors, particularly 

after the Anglo-Russian crisis of 1877/78, Imperial 

Britain flexed its might in Sydney on two occasions 

in 1881. On 12 April the Royal Navy—responsible 

for the defence of NSW—held a sham fight near 

Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. Granted a public holiday, 

thousands attended the spectacle. Later, on 6 July, 

the Navy’s Detached Squadron anchored in Sydney 

Harbour with Queen Victoria’s grandsons George 

and Albert on board. The welcome extended to the 

young princes—who laid a foundation stone for a 

statue of Victoria—was seen as an example of ‘true’ 

and ‘unchangeable’ loyalty to the Crown.

52

53 

Detached Squadron under command 

of the Earl of Clanwilliam 

1881 



NRS 4481 SH449

54

LIST OF WORKS 

The Queen’s album, 1882 

Works are reproduced from the NSW State Archives 

Collection, NRS 4481 Glass negatives, Government 

Printing Office unless otherwise indicated. 

1. Statue of Prince Albert, 1871, SH209~ 

21. Detached Squadron under command 

of the Earl of Clanwilliam, 1881, SH449 

22. View of Darling Harbour from North Shore, 

c. 1881˘ 

2. Government House, c. 1880, SH291 

3. Botanic Gardens, 1879, SH443 

4. Botanic Gardens, 1879* 








12. The Garden Palace, 1880, SH331~ 





17. Lady Macquarie's Chair, 

from Government House, 1879, SH428 

18. Public offices, c. 1880* 

19. Free Public Library, 1877, SH470 

20. Detached Squadron under command 

of the Earl of Clanwilliam, 1881, SH448 

23. Naval Sham Fight under Commodore Wilson, 

12 th April, 1881, SH1453 


12 th April, 1881, SH1454 


12 th April, 1881, SH1455 


12 th April, 1881, SH1456 

27. View from the Garden Palace, looking towards 

the Heads, 1880, SH332 

28. School of Arts, Bathurst, c. 1880^ 

29. Picton Viaduct over Stonequarry Creek, 

1870, SH1117~ 

30. Mount Victoria, c. 1880, SH404 

31. Mount Victoria Kunimbla Pass, c. 1880^ 

32. Mount Victoria Pass, c. 1880^ 

33. View in Penrith, c. 1880, SH415 

34. Govett’s Leap, Blue Mountains, c. 1880, SH403 

35. Valley of the Grose, 1875^ 

36. Valley of the Grose, 1875^ 

37. Fern Trees, Mount Wilson, c. 1880^ 

38. Saddle Cutting, near Bargo Lagoons, 

c. 1880, SH932 

55

39. Saddle Cutting, near Bargo Lagoons, c. 1880^ 

60. Katoomba – The Sisters, 1880, SH1684 

40. Newcastle, c. 1880^ 

61. Double Bay, c. 1880, SH1540 

41. Newcastle showing Railway lines, c. 1880^ 

62. Museum, 1870, SH564 

42. Newcastle Custom House, c. 1880^ 

43. Knapsack Gully Viaduct, 1880, SH1685 

44. Old Bridge, Lapstone Hill, 1880, SH1689 


63. Glanworth, Darling Point (The Honorable 

James Watson), 1880, SH1709 

64. Copy of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates 

(Sir James Martin's residence, Potts Point), 

c. 1880, SH1539 

56 


47. Lapstone Hill Pass, 1880, SH1686 

48. Emu Plains, showing Nepean River, 

1880, SH1679 


1880, SH1680 


1880, SH1678 

51. Faulconbridge, Blue Mountains 

(Sir Henry Parkes), 1880, SH1694 





54. Numantia, Blue Mountains 

(Sir James Martin), 1880, SH1697 



ADDITIONAL WORKS 

The Queen’s Album, 2019 

Alexander Bassano 

Queen Victoria 

1882 


© National Portrait Gallery, London 

x95818 

Key 

~ Original GPO negative has not survived; 

a comparable image from the collection 

has been used 

* Collodion negative, NSW State Archives Collection, 

A4078/A4053 

˘ This image has not been identified 

^ Black and white photograph, 

State Library of NSW, X981/3 



57. Katoomba – Chain of Waterfalls, 1880, SH1681 

58. Katoomba – Falls, 1880, SH1682 

59. Katoomba – The Orphan, 1880, SH1683

FURTHER READING 

NSW State Archives Collection 

Colonial Secretary 

Colonial Secretary, indexes and register 

of letters received 

NRS 922 

Government Printing Office 

Copies of letters sent 

NRS 4409 


Register and index of memoranda received 

NRS 4416 


Specimen of printing types in use at the 

Government Printing Office, Sydney, 1882 

NRS 4440 

Davies, A., Stanbury, P., and Tanre, C., The 

mechanical eye in Australia: Photography 

1841-1900, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985 

Ennis, Helen, A modern vision: Charles Bayliss, 

photographer, 1850-1897, National Library of 

Australia, Canberra, 2008 

Gibbs, Shallard and Co., Illustrated guide 

to Sydney and its suburbs, and to favourite 

places of resort, Rev. ed., Facsimile ed., Angus 

and Robertson, Sydney, 1882 

Grainger, E., Martin of Martin Place: A biography 

of Sir James Martin (1820-1886), Alpha Books, 

Sydney, 1970 

Irish, P., Hidden in plain view: The Aboriginal 

people of coastal Sydney, NewSouth Publishing, 

Sydney, 2017 

Books 

Aitken, R., Gardenesque: A celebration of 

Australian gardening, The Miegunyah Press, 

Carlton, 2004 

Baird, J., Victoria the Queen: An intimate 

biography of the woman who changed the 

world, Harper Collins, New York, 2016 

Bennett, J.M., Sir James Martin: Premier and 

Chief Justice of New South Wales, Federation 

Press, Leichardt, 2005 

Bridges, P. and McDonald, D., James Barnet: 

Colonial Architect, Hale and Iremonger, 

Sydney, 1988 

Connors, J., Royal visits to Australia, 

National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2015 

Dando-Collins, S., Sir Henry Parkes: 

The Australian colossus, Vintage Books, 

North Sydney, 2013 

Jones, J., Jonathan Jones: barrangal dyara (skin 

and bones), Thames and Hudson, Lilyfield, 2016 

Lee, R., The greatest public work: The New South 

Wales railways, 1848 to 1889, Hale and Iremonger, 

Sydney, 1988 

Lee, R., Colonial engineer: John Whitton 1819-1898 

and the building of Australia’s railways, Australian 

Railway Historical Society, Redfern, 2000 

McKillop, R. and Sheedy, D., Our region, our 

railway: The Hunter and the Great Northern 

Railway, Australian Railway Historical Society, 

Redfern, 2008 

Millar, D., The Victorian watercolours and 

drawings in the collection of Her Majesty the 

Queen, Vol. 1, Philip Wilson Publishers, London, 1995 

NSW Government Printing Office, The railway 

guide of New South Wales, Thomas Richards, 

Government Printer, Sydney, 1881. Accessed 2 May 

2019. Available online 

57

58 

NSW Government Printing Office and Raymond, 

L., Priceless pictures from the remarkable NSW 

Government Printing Office collection, 1870-1950, 

NSW Government Printing Office, Ultimo, 1988 

Nicholls, B., The colonial volunteers: The defence 

forces of the Australian Colonies 1836-1901, Allen 

and Unwin, Sydney, 1988 

Richards, T., New South Wales in 1881, Thomas 

Richards, Government Printer, Sydney, 1881 

Russell, J.E.M., The pictorial guide to the Blue 

Mountains of New South Wales, and to the 

districts between Parramatta and Lithgow. 

Facsimile ed., Gibb, Shallard and Co., Sydney, 1882 

Stacker, L., Penrith: The makings of a city, Halsted, 

Ultimo, 2014 

State Library of NSW, Imagine a city: 200 years of 

public architecture in NSW, State Library of NSW, 

Sydney, 2016 

Suters Architects, prepared on behalf of Newcastle 

City Council, Newcastle city wide heritage 

study: Thematic history, Suters Architects, 

Newcastle, 1997 

Thomas, M., The artificial horizon: Imagining 

the Blue Mountains, Melbourne University Press, 

Carlton, 2003 

Toy, A. and Griffin, R., Government House Sydney, 

Historic Houses Trust, Sydney, 2011 

Wilson, E., The wishing tree: A guide to memorial 

trees, statues, fountains, etc. in the Royal Botanic 

Gardens, Domain, and Centennial Park, Sydney, 

Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, 1992 

Allen, L. J., ‘Technical education’, in Greaves, B. 

(Ed.), The story of Bathurst, 3 rd ed., Angus and 

Robertson, Sydney, 1976, pp. 193-201 

Fitzgerald, S., ‘The Garden Palace and Sydney’s 

International Exhibition, 1879’, in Coltheart, L. 

(Ed.), Significant sites: History and public works 

in New South Wales, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 

1989, pp. 67-96 

Havard, W. L., ‘Mitchell’s Pass, near Emu Plains’, 

Royal Australian Historical Society Journal 

and Proceedings, Vol. 19, Part 6, 1933, pp. 352-63 

Hoskins, I., ‘“The core of the city”: Public parks, 

respectability and civic regulation in Sydney’, 

National Identities, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2003, pp. 7-24 

Irish, P. and Ingrey, M., ‘Marking their footsteps: 

Aboriginal people and places in nineteenth-century 

Sydney’, in Exploring Urban Identities and 

Histories, AIATSIS Research Publications, 2013, 

pp. 75-90. Accessed 2 May 2019. Available online 

Jones, D.J., ‘Public library development in New 

South Wales’, The Australian Library Journal, 

Vol. 54, No. 2, May 2005, pp. 130-7. Accessed 2 May 


MacLeod Morgan, H.A., ‘Eccleston Frederic 

Du Faur: A lover of nature and of art’, Royal 

Australian Historical Society Journal and 

Proceedings, Vol. 42, Part. 1, 1956, pp. 16-23 

Massov, A., ‘War scare and growing Russophobia in 

Australia, 1853-1903’, in Massov, A., McNair, J., and 

Poole, T. (Eds.), Encounters under the Southern 

Cross : Two centuries of Russian-Australian 

relations 1807-2007, Crawford House Publishing 

Australia, Belair, 2007, pp. 49-75 

Articles and chapters 

Alfrey, Nicholas, ‘Romanticism gets real: British 

landscape photography’, Tate Etc., No. 21, Spring 

2011. Accessed 6 May 2019. Available online 

Mootz, D., ‘The Lysicrates monument’, Teaching 

History, Vol. 50, No. 4, Dec. 2016, pp. 26-7. Accessed 

2 May 2019. Available online 

Orr, K., ‘Designing Sydney, 1879-1891: Visions 

of an Antipodean South Kensington’, Journal 

of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 11, 2009, 

pp. 147-66. Accessed 2 May 2019. Available online

Proudfoot, H., ‘Sydney changes scale: The impact of 

James Barnet’s Australian Museum building on the 

town of Sydney,’ in Coltheart, L. (Ed.), Significant 

sites: History and public works in New South 

Wales, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1989, pp. 52-66 

Rowland, E.C., ‘The story of the New South Wales 

railways’, Royal Australian Historical Society 

Journal and Proceedings, Vol. 15, Part 5, 1954, 

pp. 245-86 

Selkirk, H., ‘David Lennox, the bridge builder, and 

his work’, Royal Australian Historical Society 


pp. 200-43 

Smith, J., ‘New insights into Gundungurra place 

naming’, in Koch, H. and Hercus, L. (Eds.), 

Aboriginal placenames: Naming and re-naming 

the Australian landscape, Australian National 

University, Canberra, 2009, pp. 87-114 

Stephen, A. E., ‘Numantia: A place of disillusioned 

aspirations’, Royal Australian Historical Society 


pp. 249-276 

Haken, J.K., ‘The New South Wales Naval Forces 

1863-1902’, Naval Historical Review, reproduced 

by Naval Historical Society of Australia, 2007. 

Accessed 2 May 2019. Available online 

Irish, P., ‘Mrs Macquarie’s Chair’, Barani: Sydney’s 

Aboriginal History, n.d. Accessed 2 May 2019. 

Available online 

Lysicrates Foundation, ‘The Lysicrates story, from 

ancient Athens to Sydney today’, History, 2019. 


McCarthy L. and Ashton P., (Eds.), ‘Sydney Open 

Museum historical survey’, Sydney City Council, 


Merriman, J., ‘Eurama and Weemala at 

Faulconbridge’, Blue Mountains Local Studies, 


NSW State Archives, ‘Colonial Museum (1827-1834), 

Australian Museum (1834- )’, n.d. Accessed 2 May 


NSW State Archives, ‘Garden Palace fire, 1882’, n.d. 


59 

Online reference collections 

Australian Dictionary of Biography. Accessed 


Dictionary of Sydney. Accessed 2 May 2019. 


NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. 


Other 

‘Alexander Brodie’, Design and Art Australia 

Online, 2018. Accessed 2 May 2019. Available online 

Finney, V., ‘A short history of the Australian 

Museum’, Australian Museum, 2014. Accessed 


Penrith City Council, Treasures of Penrith’s 

Past exhibition: Celebrating the bicentenary 

of Penrith 1815-2015, 2015. Accessed 2 May 2019. 


‘Project 32: Jonathan Jones – Project summary’, 

Kaldor Public Art Projects, 2016. Accessed 2 May 


State Library of NSW, ‘History of the library’, n.d. 


State Library of NSW, ‘The Garden Palace’, n.d. 


Newspapers 

Curated Trove list

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 


The Queen’s Album Project Team 

Senior Curator: Dr Penny Stannard 

Assistant Curator: Bonnie Wildie 

Conservation: Elizabeth Hadlow 

Exhibition Design: Maria Mosquera 

Collection and Digitisation: Anna Gray, 

Thomas von Schomburg, Norm Ricaud 

Exhibition Support: Angus Hooke 

Special thanks to 

Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley 

AO QC, Governor of NSW 

Dayn Cooper, Government House, Sydney 

Maggie Patton, Margot Riley and Catherine 

Thomson, State Library of NSW 

Rhian Wong, Royal Collection Trust 

John Merriman, Blue Mountains City Council 

Gionni Di Gravio, University of Newcastle 

Social Media: Anthea Brown 

Exhibition Touring: Wendy Gallagher 

Create NSW Media and Communications: 

Kristoff Clarke, Ted Rose 

Exhibition Fabrication: Definitive Group 

Thanks to 


National Library of Australia 

Royal Collection Trust 

60 

Senior Executive Team 

Executive Director: Adam Lindsay 

Director, Collections, Access and Engagement: 

Martyn Killion 

Director, Commercial Operations: Ben Alexander 

British Library 

Bodleian Library 

National Archives (UK) 

National Portrait Gallery (UK) 

NSW State Archives and 

Records Authority Board 

Chair: Dr Brian Lindsay 

Lauren Eyles 

Jeffrey Greenwood 

The Hon. Justice Geoff Lindsay 

The Hon. Shayne Mallard MLC 

Alex O’Mara 

Elizabeth Tydd 

Rodney Wallis 

David Walton 

Mount Victoria 

c. 1880 



NRS 4481 SH404

61

62

The Queen's Album

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