Queen Victoria Stockings

The path some objects take as they move through history is often unpredictable. The Historical Museum is home to a pair of Queen Victoria’s silk stockings.

They were first a gift to Susan Tapper, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting, upon her retirement. Mrs. Tapper spent her remaining years with her aunt, Mrs. Bird, in London. In 1911, the Bird family and the stockings crossed the ocean to Canada.

The stockings were then passed to Mrs. Bird’s daughter Mrs. Wintermute and finally made their way to the museum where they now sit as a testament to one of the most powerful women ever to live.

Queen Victoria is indeed a historical giant. Her sixty-three years and seven months on the throne make her the longest reigning British monarch in history as well as the longest reigning female monarch ever. She ruled over one of the largest empires the world has ever seen, including one quarter of the world’s population and land area.

Her subjects consisted of roughly 450,000,000 people. Her reign lies within Britain’s “Imperial Century” and she truly ruled over an empire where the sun never set. Victoria is also known as the “grandmother of Europe.” Her nine children and forty-two grandchildren married across a huge swath of European royal families.

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Victoria came into power shortly before the age of 18 in the year 1837. She married the Prince Albert that our city is named after in 1840 and was Canada’s first queen. Her long and eventful life included seven assassination attempts. Canadians served in her name in both the Crimean and Boer wars.

Victoria died in January, 1901. Although she is long gone, she is still present all around us. In Canada alone, two provincial capitals are named after her (Victoria and Regina) and we still celebrate her day of birth (May 24). Statues of her dot the former British Empire and her name christens everything from waterfalls to entire states.

The stockings are just one part of the massive legacy that Queen Victoria left in her wake.