Regal Diaries

The diaries of Queen Victoria can now be read online. The project is a collaboration of Oxford University, ProQuest and the Bodeleian Libraries.

According to The NYTimes:

The diaries, which run to 141 volumes and more than 43,000pages, begin when Victoria was 13 and end 10 days before her death in 1901, at age 81. They cover subjects ranging from the early days of her romance with Prince Albert to her own Diamond Jubilee in 1897, which she recorded as turning the streets of London into "one mass of beaming faces." 

Moments like births of her nine children are also glimpsed at in observations like "Dr. Snow administered "that blessed Chloroform'." Victoria's chief chef was a native from India and her household servants were of the same ethnic ilk, and she has noted "I am learning a few words of Hindustani to speak to my servants [...] It is of great interest to me."

An afterthought: the painting of the young Queen--she does eerily resemble Emily Blunt, the British actress who played the role of the young queen (The Young Victoria)