New acquisitions: the coronation of Queen Victoria

We’ve featured some of Special Collections’ memorabilia from Queen Victoria’s 1838 coronation previously on this website, but we’ve recently acquired some spectacular items  and want to share!

Our first featured item is Peter Parley’s visit to London, during the coronation of Queen Victoria is an 1839 children’s book recounting the coronation as well as the prominent sights and celebrities of London at the beginning of Victoria’s reign.

Next, An account of the processions and ceremonies observed in the magnificent coronation of Victoria I, Queen of England: this chapbook would have been a relatively inexpensive piece reporting on the coronation. The fold-out illustration of Victoria’s coronation procession is a simple woodcut, hand-painted with watercolors. It stands in sharp contrast to Soffe’s panoramic representation of the grand procession on the day of the Queen’s coronation, which is an 18-foot lithographed and hand-colored depiction of Victoria’s procession through London on the way to her coronation. This panorama would have been a much more expensive souvenir of the event.

 You can find these and other items from Victoria’s reign by searching the library catalog for the subject “Victoria, Queen of Great Britain.”