The term "Victorian" is an Anglophone word that applies to the reign of Queen Victoria between 1837 and 1901. I use the words "Early Victorian" to mean an era characterized by wide dresses, supported after about 1857 by metal hoop cages called "crinolines" (click here for the origin of the word "crinoline"). However, this period spans other cultural eras - namely the later part of the Romantic Era that spanned from 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, to 1850, when the Industrial Revolution really took over. In the German world, the period from 1815 to 1848 is called "Biedermeier."
Fashion evolved from Empire styles to wide skirts and huge sleeves between 1815 and 1836 and I believe that a form set in in 1837 steadily evolved through 1869. In 1889 dresses developed bustle-like shapes that solidified in the early 1870s. I close the Early Victorian era with 1870, the year the Franco-Prussian War broke out that would end the Second Empire. The bustle was already entrenching itself when the Franco-Prussian War changed history for another 119 years (the aftermath finally settled out with the formation of the EU and the fall of the Berlin Wall).
This is a big set of images for four reasons. First, more dresses and art survive from this period because it is so recent. Second, more portrait artists were working leaving a lush record, especially of evening and special occasion dresses. Third, the technology of printing evolved so there are numerous prints and illustrated papers, especially The Illustrated London News that I just call "ILN" in my files, that print images are widely available. Finally, last but most important, Louis Daguerre invented photogrphy and it was made openly available in 1839. Even before George Eastman invented the snapshot ("Kodak") camera and roll film, photography made it very easy to proliferate the number of portraits and images. Others developed cartes de visite and cabinet cards with celebrity images that are frequently sold on eBay.
Let's go!
The albums are:
"Early" "Victorian" - 1837 - 1870 - with discrete images as well as these subalbums:
Frances, Viscountess Jocelyn, NEW
Penelope Smyth, Princess of Capua and her daughter Vittoria,
Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland,
Victoire, Duchesse de Nemours,
Princess Clémentine d'Orléans ,
Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
Susannah, Duchess of Roxburghe,
Queen Sophie of the Netherlands,
Marie of Baden, Duchess of Hamilton,
Louise Marie Thérese de Bourbon, Duchess of Parma,
Elizabeth Alexandrine Clary-Aldringen, née Ficquelmont (1825-1878),
Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts,
Marie Caroline Auguste of the Two Siciles, Duchesse d'Aumale,
Maria Adelaide of Austria, Queen of Sardinia,
Maria Anna Leopoldine of Bavaria, Queen of Saxony,
Aleksandra Potocka (1818-1892),
Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen of Hanover, RELOCATED
Archduchess Maria Karolina of Austria-Teschen,
Princess Leonilla of Sayn Wittgenstein Sayn, née Bariatinsky,
Louise Marie d'Orleans, Queen of the Belgians,
Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande, Grand Duchess of Tuscany,
Maria Theresia of Austria-Este-Chambord,
Charlotte Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch,
Princess Eugenia of Sweden, NEW
Infanta Luísa Fernanda, Duchesse de Montpensier,
Françoise of Braganza, Princesse de Joinville,
Grand Duchess Marie Adelheid of Luxembourg,
Louise Rasmussen, Countess Danner,
Queen Louise of Denmark, "Grandmother of Europe",
Empress Eugenie that has these Albumettes -
Albumette: Dresses Worn by Empress Eugénie
Albumette: People Associated with Empress Eugénie
Marie von Baden, Prinzessin zu Leiningen,
Maria Anna di Ricci, Countess Walewska,
Empress Elisabeth of Austria and her Sisters that has these Albumettes -
Albumette: Empress Elisabeth of Austria - Sissi that has this collection:
Collection: 1867 Empress Elisabeth's Hungarian Coronation.
Albumette: Helene of Thurn und Taxis and Mathilde Trani,
Albumette: Marie Sophie Wittelsbach, Queen of the Two Sicilies, and
Albumette: Sophie Charlotte, Duchesse d'Alencon.
Princess Feodora of Hohenlohe-Langenburg,
Adeline, Countess of Cardigan,
Melanie de Bussiere, comtesse de Pourtalès,
Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska,
Elizaveta Esperovna Troubetzkaya, NEW
Marie Laeticia Bonaparte-Wyse, NEW
Princess Royal Victoria and Princesses Alice, Helena, and Louise - Queen Victoria's older daughters that has these Albumettes -
Albumette: Princess Royal Victoria,
Albumette: Princess Helena, and
Albumette: Princess Louise, NEW
Princess Ludovica Teresa Maria Clotilde, called Clotilde, Bonaparte, née Savoia,
Queen Louise (Lovisa) of Sweden, née Netherlands,
Louise von Alten-Montagu-Cavendish, Duchess of Manchester-Devonshire, NEW
Princess Anna von Preußen, Landgräfin von Hesse,
Theresia av Sachsen-Altenburg,
Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxe-Weimar, née Netherlands,
Lady Clementina, Viscountess Hawarden,
Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg,
Julia von Hauke, a founder of the House of Battenberg-Mounbatten,
Princess Françoise d'Orléans (1844-1925),
Queen Augusta of Prussia, reluctant first Empress of united Germany,
Archduchess Maria Theresia, Duchess of Württemberg,
Queen Elisabeth of Romania, née Wied, Carmen Sylva,
Princess Alexandrine of Prussia (1842–1906),
Clotilde of Saxe Coburg Gotha,
Princess Maria Anna of Anhalt-Dessau/Prussia,
Queen of the Belgians Maria Hendrika,
Marie Isabelle, Comtesse de Paris,
Princess Mary of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck,
Princess Frederica of Hanover (1848-1926),
Maria Annunziata of the Two Sicilies,
Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (1854 – 1898), and
Countess of Flanders Marie von Hohenzollern.
Iberian Style Between 1837 and 1870
with discrete images as well as these subalbums:
Theresa Cristina, Imperatriz do Brasil,
Stephanie of Prussia, Queen of Portugal,