| Collection | Victorian Papers, Main Series |
| Description | Princess' Beatrice's transcript of her mother's journals covers the years from 1837 (when Queen Victoria came to the throne) until her death in 1901. They were produced in accordance with the Queen's own wishes when she instructed Princess Beatrice to re-write the Journal, after her death, omitting or modifying passages which she considered unsuitable for preservation. An examination of the text shows that Princess Beatrice took this to mean that she should leave out information she considered too slight to be of interest (thus, very occasionally omitting a whole day), as well as passages she thought might offend other family members. The original volumes, once copied, were destroyed, also on the Queen's instructions, though any enclosures, such as newspaper cuttings and concert lists, were taken out and put in the copy volumes. Princess Beatrice also cut out from the original journal the sketches which the Queen had drawn to illustrate particular points, and pasted these into her abridged transcripts, although some loose drawings of 1834-1852 originally found in these volumes will also be found in VIC/MAIN/QVJ/DRAW. |