![Folding concertina album containing portraits of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Members of the Royal Family, Foreign Royals and celebrities French calf leather album by Maquet, with silver gilt clasps and green watered silk board lining, each leaf having four embossed paper windows, containing 100 albumen cartes-de-visite (RCINs 2915115-2915213).
From the 1840s Queen Victoria began to acquire](https://cmsadmin.rct.uk/sites/default/files/lead-image/trail/149552-1297438413.jpg)
Portrait Photographs in the Royal Collection
The Royal Family have collected, created and commissioned many portrait photographs
Prince Albert (1819-1861)
1848RCIN 2932487
Prince Albert (1819-61) was fascinated by the medium of photography. He commissioned photographers, collected prints and arranged photograph albums. In 1848, Prince Albert commissioned William Edward Kilburn (1818-91) to take this daguerreotype. Following processing, Kilburn carefully coloured the glass plate with coloured pigments. He added decoration in the form of a blue sky with clouds. The portrait resembles a painted miniature, a medium that fell from popularity following the invention of photography.