A reoccurring theme in depictions of Queen Victoria’s mourning is an emphasis on the photograph as a conduit between the deceased and living cross-generational sitters; linking past, present, and future together.

This is evident in a series of portraits of Queen Victoria and Princess Helena from 1862 and in this photograph, which shows Princess Beatrice sitting on her mother's lap, holding what we can assume is a small photograph of Prince Albert. This image was later reproduced on the front cover of the Lady’s Newspaper and Pictorial Times on 14 March 1863.