Queen Victoria's floral tributes

A silver print showing some of the floral tributes sent to Windsor Castle to mark the funeral of Queen Victoria in February 1901.

According to a report in The Times (2 February 1901): ‘Much disappointment was experienced this morning by the public on reading the notice affixed to the Castle gates that the wreaths would not be on view. […] As long as it was possible to view the flowers the permission was readily granted; but the immense number of floral offerings has made it necessary that this privilege should be discontinued. The wreaths and other tributes displayed in the Dean’s cloister do not include those received at Osborne. Those sent direct to Windsor are, however, so numerous as to be almost bewildering. No one who has not had the privilege of seeing them can form the slightest conception of their number or variety. They have been arriving during the last two days in carts, trucks, wagons, and vans: and the sight which met my eye as I walked through the Dean’s cloister today was one which words are powerless to describe. From the whole world, from foreign Sovereigns, from the colonies, from America, from Scotland, Ireland, and, indeed, every quarter of the United Kingdom and the British Empire these tributes of sympathy have poured in; and, writing with a desire to avoid anything like exaggeration, I affirm that no one could look upon them and read the inscriptions which they bear without being deeply moved by this wonderful manifestation of honour and of love.’

According to annotations in a period hand in the margins, the four largest tributes seen here were from: (reading from left to right): ‘America, [the] Academy of Arts, [the] Tower of London, [and the] English residents at [Le] Havre.’

Photographer unidentified.