Celebrating Albert

The exhibition Albert. His Life and Work celebrates the life of the Prince Consort and seeks to establish his influence not only on Queen Victoria and their family but also on British affairs, his knowledge of foreign politics, and his important role as the Queen's secretary.

The exhibition takes its visitors through Prince Albert's childhood in Coburg to his courtship and marriage to Queen Victoria. The Prince's patronage of the arts and his great interest and links with artistic bodies will be illustrated by showing objects that he commissioned, and in some cases designed, himself. His best known achievement in the scientific field was his instigation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the Crystal Palace has been reconstructed at the Royal College of Art, site of the current exhibition, and filled with objects of early Victorian industrial design.