CLICK HERE TO BROWSE THE 1907-1908 PHOTO ALBUM
OF GRAND DUCHESS OLGA NIKOLAEVNA

A photograph album belonging to the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (1895-1918) from the collection of the State Archives of the Russian Federation (Moscow) is currently on display at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in St. Petersburg.

The photographs are dated 1907-1908. The cover of the album is decorated with the Imperial Crown, and in the upper right corner is Olga’s monogram O. N.

In total, the album contains 294 photographs, of the Romanov family during the early 20th century. The pictures depict the day to day life of the Imperial Family: Olga and her siblings playing games, picnics, snowball fights and walks in the Alexander Park at Tsarskoye Selo, sailing on the Imperial Yacht Shtandart, New Year’s celebrations, and the Romanov family at home.

It also depicts photos of the Imperial Family: Empress Alexandra Feodorovna at Tsarskoye Selo with her children, with maids of honour, Emperor Nicholas II with his family and entourage.

Olga was the eldest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. She was the favorite of her father, and was considered the most gifted of the August children. Olga had a philosophical mind, loved to read and wrote poetry. According to Anna Vyrubova, Olga was ‘extremely pretty, with brilliant blue eyes and a lovely complexion, and resembled her father in the fineness of her features, especially in her delicate, slightly tipped nose’.

All the photos in the album are cheerful and serene. During the First World War, Grand Duchesses Olga and her sister Tatiana, together with their mother, completed Red Cross training, passed an exam, and swapped their Imperial dress for nurses uniforms and began to help wounded soldiers in a special hospital set up not far from the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.

Next year, will mark the 130th anniversary of the birth of the Grand Duchess, on 16th (O.S. 3rd) November 2025.

© Paul Gilbert. 26 December 2024