Search results

Start typing

Prince Albert: his life and legacy

A major new digitisation project will explore Prince Albert's enduring legacy and influence

Privy Purse bills and receipts

1858

Interested in both art and technology, Prince Albert was an early adopter of photography. He also commissioned and purchased photographs by commercial photographers, thus conferring a degree of artistic respectability upon this new branch of cultural creativity. While much of the Prince's private correspondence no longer survives, Privy Purse papers frequently offer valuable evidence of this patronage.

These bills and receipts record, amongst other things, payments in 1858 to Oscar Rejlander, a Swedish immigrant and pioneering photographer considered by some to be the 'father of art photography'. The photographs purchased are most likely among those in an album of 'Calotypes' from 1857–8, compiled by Prince Albert, which is still in the Royal Collection.


    The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.