inundated with photographs of the Queen's family, its sweetest babe cradled in the arms of Her Majesty or, if no infant, a standing child leaning on the Queen's lap." Queen Victoria was sometime referred to as the "grandmother" of Europe because of this practice (Munich 267). Family values and morality would come to symbolize the Victorian era. As Munich (265) says of one common portrait of Queen Victoria, "The paradox of a devoted wife, prolific mother, and extravagant widow who is also Queen of an Empire upon which the sun never sets."
Queen Victoria served as the powerful symbol of the Victorian era as Britain expanded its empire. The nation, fueled by the peak of the industrial revolution, reached its pinnacle and stood as the greatest power on earth. In June of 1837, Victoria would become first Empress of India in addition to her dual Queenship, a position she held until her death in 1901. Throughout all these changes Quee
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