Visit of Edward, Prince of Wales, to New England in 1860. Harper's Weekly (3 November 1860): 692. In the picture, based on a photograph taken at Mathew B. Brady's Daguerreotype National Photographic Portrait Gallery at Broadway and Fulton Streets in New York City (opened in 1844), the Prince's suite includes the following, left to right: William Brodie, Major Teasdale, Dr. Acland, Captain Grey, Charles G. L. Eliot, Lord Lyons, Earl St. Germans, Hinchbrook, H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Newcastle, General Bruce, G. D. Engleheart, G. F. Jenner, and Frederick Warre.
The American "Journal of Civilization," Harper's Weekly, was never more Anglophilic when it offered readers coverage of the royal visit in August through November, 1860, which followed the Prince of Wales' state visit to Canada. Towards the end of Prince Edward's visit to the New England states, George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, and the American capital, the journal printed a large-scale illustration depicting the Prince of Wales (centre) and his thirteen-member entourage of political and diplomatic advisers (3 November 1860). Not yet nineteen, the Prince charmed New Englanders as he had his subjects to the north, for whom he opened the Victoria Bridge in Montreal and laid a cornerstone for the Dominion's Houses of Parliament in Ottawa.
Above: The resident cartoonist's light-hearted treatment of the the royal visit: Anticipated Scenes in the Life of a Prince who was very fond of Dancing (p. 704).
Despite his popularity with American crowds as he visited President James Buchanan in Washington, D. C., and visited the tomb of President George Washington at Mount Vernon, Harper's ran the satirical panel shown above in the same issue. The Gothic letters may obliquely allude to his German ancestry.
Individual scenes, left to right: (i): He dances to his Coronation. (ii): Takes the Coronation Oath, thus. (iii): Thus he opens Parliament. (iv): Receives a Foreign Ambassador. (v): Seeks a Matrimonial Alliance. [Click on thumbnails for larger images than those above.]
His Statue (Prince holds fiddle
and
bow, and is shown in a ballet skirt.)
The American journal was only partly prophetic, for, although the Prince of Wales was shortly to become engaged to Princess Alexandra of Denmark (on 9 September 1862), and to marry her on 10 March 1863, he did not assume the British throne until his mother's death in 1901. However, during his mother's extended widowhood, Prince Edward did represent Queen Victoria at various public ceremonies and gatherings.
Scanned images and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the images and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Anticipated Scenes in the Life of a Prince who was very fond of Dancing. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization. 3 November 1860. 704.
Created 5 April 2011
Last modified 23 June 2024