Queen Victoria's Scrapbook Assignment

Queen Victoria's scrapbooks and documents were digitized a few years ago, so I decided to create this web assignment to keep students busy if there is a sub in the classroom!  However, it can be used as a regular assignment or project for a history class.

Queen Victoria kept a diary at the insistence of her mother and she was one of the first monarchs that allowed pictures of her family to be presented in the newspapers.  Prince Albert used the pictures to show the Royal Family behaving like a normal middle class family.   She was also a voracious letter writer and many of her letters are preserved.  Her family heavily censored her letters after her death to hide her true opinions.

AN Wilson explores Queen Victoria through her letters in the series Queen Victoria's Letter: A Monarch Unveiled.  He walks in Queen Victoria's footsteps in order to get to know the monarch as a person.  Attached are links to both episodes of the series.  This documentary served as inspiration for the Queen Victoria's Scrapbook Assignment.

Queen Victoria: A Monarch Unveiled
Episode 1
This first episode covers her childhood.  Queen Victoria recalls an unhappy childhood due to her mother's advisor Sir John Conroy.  However her experiences lead us to believe that her childhood wasn't so unhappy.  He traces the source of Queen Victoria's unhappiness as well as discusses the day she became Queen.  Wilson then goes into talking about her marriage to Prince Albert.

Episode 2
Wilson kicks off this episode with Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and discusses the impact of Queen Victoria's mourning for Albert.  She became a free woman when Prince Albert died and quietly worked behind the scenes to have an impact on European Policies.  She worked the back channels in politics even though her people though her deranged with grief.  Wilson then explores her relationships with men post Albert.

Victoria Revealed
This is a tour of the Victoria Revealed Exhibit that went on in Kensington Palace.

You have permission to download the document.  There is a note at the bottom of the assignment that it can be used for a portfolio assignment, I have an idea that at the end of the year the student can put together a portfolio of their work and write a reflection on what they learned.  I did this in grad school and loved every minute of putting together my portfolio.

queenvictoriasscrapbookwebassignment.docx
File Size:	15 kb
File Type:	docx

Download File

---