THE QUEEN'S COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 11, 12 March 1892, Page 257

THE QUEEN'S COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS.

Her Majesty the Queen (we are reminded by the Photographic News) is supposed to have the largest collection extant of photographic portraits of notabilities of her time, from the portraits of kings, queens, emperors and empresses downwards. They commence in the early dawn of the art of making sun-pictures—in the days of those daguerrotypes on metallic surfaces which generally required you to hold them sideways before you could get a view of their rather pale and feeble traits. Hence they embrace the whole history of the art, and are thoroughly representative of the progress of photography. Our contemporary suggests that if reproduction of all in some permanent process be impossible, a selection might be made which would be well worth preserving for the information of future generations. Unfortunately, time is no respector of photographs, Royal or otherwise, and many of the most interesting must show signs of fading. The collection would, our contemporary thinks, justify the appointment of a Royal photographer, one of whose duties it would be to watch the collection, and copy these which are considered worthy of preservation before they fade.