This portrait of Prince Albert was taken in May 1854 by Duppa. In July of the same year, Queen Victoria commissioned him to take a photograph of her, as a surprise for her husband. In her portrait, the Queen is seen holding a framed copy of this photograph. A number of the Victorian photographs in the Photograph Collection were re-photographed, or sometimes reprinted from the original negative, presumably to guard against fading, after the discovery of the permanent carbon process in the 1860s. Much of this work, as in this case, was undertaken by the firm of Hughes & Mullins, of Ryde in the Isle of Wight. In some cases, the original photographs are preserved underneath the carbon prints.