A Victorian Christmas from the National Art Library

Festive online lecture from the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Victorian Christmases.

Francis Willis, Caroline Penn and Victoria Worsfold looked at how three characters central to the museum had shaped ideas about Christmas in this era. They started with Prince Albert and talked about how he popularised the idea of the Christmas tree via prints of himself, Queen Victoria and the family enjoying one at Buckingham Palace.

I hadn’t realised Dicken’s links to the National Art Library as his literary executor, John Forster, bequeathed 12 manuscripts and various first editions of his books to them. This included a first edition of “A Christmas Carol” and the speakers told us about how Dicken’s paid for its publication himself taking great care over its appearance and illustrations.

Finally they talked about how the first director for the museum, Henry Cole, invented the idea of the Christmas card, partly as an means of dealing with unanswered mail. They showed us his original card and took us through a selection of other examples from the collection.

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