This collection of Prince Albert’s Papers are on permanent loan from the Royal Archives to the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. They consist of correspondence either to or from Prince Albert (1819-61) and his fellow Commissioners, and relate to the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Correspondence in volumes H/1 to H/17 is concerned chiefly with the 1851 Exhibition and its aftermath, the land purchase with the surplus fund, and the early development of the South Kensington Estate, later known as ‘Albertopolis’. Volumes H/18 to H/22 cover the years 1862 to 1886 and follow the further development of the Estate and the Commission's activities in which Prince Albert, as President of the Commission from 1850 to 1861, had been closely involved.