LONDON.- More than 17,500 photographs, prints and private and official papers relating to Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, are published online today, 23 August 2019, the majority publicly available for the first time. The new website ‘Prince Albert: His Life and Legacy’ (albert.rct.uk) sheds fresh light on Albert’s contribution as Queen Victoria’s unofficial Private Secretary, a guide and mentor to some of the greatest national projects of his day, university chancellor, art historian, collector, and patron of art, architecture and design. It gives new insight into Albert’s achievements before his premature death at the age of 42, his impact on Victorian society and his influence on our world today.

As part of the Prince Albert Digitisation Project, by the end of 2020 some 23,500 items from the Royal Archives, the Royal Collection and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 will be published online. These include private and official papers, catalogues of Prince Albert's private library, his study collection of more than 5,000 prints and photographs after the work of Raphael, and 10,000 photographs collected and commissioned by Albert.

The Prince Albert Digitisation Project is supported by Sir Hugh and Lady Stevenson in honour of Sir Hugh’s sister the late Dame Anne Griffiths DCVO, former Librarian and Archivist to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, and by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

Tim Knox, Director of the Royal Collection, said, ‘It is fitting that in the year in which we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Prince Albert’s birth, we launch the website ‘Prince Albert: His Life and Legacy’, which reflects the contribution the Prince Consort made to 19th-century Britain and the wider world. We hope that the publication of material held in the Royal Archives and the Royal Collection and by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 will increase awareness and understanding of the achievements of this extraordinary man. We are very grateful to Sir Hugh and Lady Stevenson and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 for their support of this important project.’

‘Prince Albert: A Victorian Hero Revealed’ is broadcast on Channel 4 at 20:00 on Saturday, 24 August 2019. History largely remembers Prince Albert as Queen Victoria's German husband whose untimely death inspired decades of mourning. However, a wealth of new material, soon to be published online, suggests he played a profound role in shaping Victorian Britain. With access to Albert's private papers in the Royal Archives and thousands of photographs in the Royal Collection, Professor Saul David examines Albert's significant influence on British culture.