Queen Victoria's journals online

[bolo]

Hello all,

I've searched the forums for similar topics but couldn't find one so please pardon me if this has been posted before.

Queen Victoria's (apparently complete) journals are now available to browse online:

http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org/home.do

Excerpt from the "about" text of the site:

Queen Victoria was the longest serving British monarch, reigning as Queen from 1837 to 1901 and as Empress of India from 1877. In total 141 volumes of her journal survive, numbering 43,765 pages. They have never before been published in their entirety and have hitherto only been accessible to scholars by appointment at the Royal Archives. Edited excerpts have been published in print but they cover only a fraction of the whole.

As well as detailing household and family matters, the journals reflect affairs of state, describe meetings with statesmen and other eminent figures, and comment on the literature of the day. They represent a valuable primary source for scholars of nineteenth century British political and social history and for those working on gender and autobiographical writing.

Maybe this could be of interest for some of you.

Regards,

Boris

[bolo]

Small update: I've just found out that people from the UK will have free access to the journal database, all non-UKers are allowed to use it for free until the end of June, from then on it will cost a fee for us damn foreigners..

[Archaic]

Censored?

Hi Boris, thanks very much for posting this, and also for the heads-up that we Yanks can only use it free through the end of June.

What would really be fascinating would be to read Queen Victoria's correspondence, particularly with her son the Prince of Wales, her daughter the Dowager Empress Frederick of Germany, and her grand-daughter Empress Alexandra of Russia...but unfortunately Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Beatrice burned most of her correspondence.

If I remember correctly, Beatrice heavily censored her mother's diaries, even burning some sections and re-writing others... are those the same "journals" that are now available for public view?

Thanks and best regards,
Archaic

[bolo]

Hi Archaic,

as far as I can see, there are links to other documents as well that are mentioned in some journal sections but I fear that I can't tell you any more details at the moment as I'm still busy getting a good overview. There are (or will be) 14 journal volumes available at the site that were hand-written by Queen Victoria, as well as those edited by Princess Beatrice after her mother's death. At first glance, it seems that the journal entries written by herself mostly cover her youth and early years of her reign. Here's hope that there is some first-hand material covering the later years of her reign as well, especially of course the years between 1887 and 1892.

One thing is for sure, I will never make it through all the documents before July 1st so I hope the fee will be reasonable. Maybe the people responsible for putting the journals online do not realize that information pertaining to the Victorian period is of great interest for many non-UKers as well.

Regards,

Boris

[Archaic]

One thing is for sure, I will never make it through all the documents before July 1st so I hope the fee will be reasonable. Maybe the people responsible for putting the journals online do not realize that information pertaining to the Victorian period is of great interest for many non-UKers as well.

Or maybe they do, and that's why they're gonna charge us for it?

Oh well, at least we'll have access. Hopefully the charge will be modest.

Best regards,
Archaic