In 1897, Great Britain celebrated 60 years of expansion and prosperity under the reign of Queen Victoria with a worldwide Jubilee. On Saturday, Oct. 4, the Yale Center for British Art will mark the 100th anniversary of that occasion with a symposium titled "Queen Victoria, Home and Empire: A Celebration of the Diamond Jubilee."
Considered one of history's greatest monarchs, Victoria Alexandrina (1819-1901) was crowned as queen of Great Britain in 1837, at age 18, and
as empress of India in 1876.
She married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1940,
and the couple had nine children: four sons and five daughters.
The speakers at the Oct. 4 symposium will explore how the conventions of female gender during Queen Victoria's lifetime influenced how she was viewed and portrayed.
Margaret Homans, professor of English and chair of the women's studies program, will moderate the series of lectures, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. with a look at the Jubilee celebrations in Britain and around the world by Adrienne Munich of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The morning session, which will continue through noon, will also include talks on
"Victoria's America" by Deirdre David of Temple University and "Godly Adventures for Boys and Girls: Missionary Heroism, Romance and Domesticity in Victoria's
England" by Mary Ellis Gibson of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
The afternoon session, 1:30-4:30 p.m., will feature three talks: "Coronation Day: Photography and London's Poor in 1903" by Richard L. Stein of the University of
Oregon; "From the Diamond Jubilee to the Silver Screen: Queen Victoria's Imperial Image and Nazi Cinema"
by Janet Winston of the University of Iowa; and "In the Queen's Chambers: Political Images of Feminine Interiority" by Nancy Armstrong of Brown University.
The symposium, which is free and open to the public, was organized with the cooperation of the English department and the women's studies program. A small exhibit of related works from the British Art Center's collection will be on view Sept. 30-Nov. 2.
The Yale Center for British Art is located at
1080 Chapel St. It is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.
For information, call 432-2800 or visit the center's site on the World Wide Web at www.yale.edu/ycba.