What was it like to grow up as an exact contemporary of Queen Victoria? This tour showcases the parallel lives of the generation who – like her – were born in 1819, exactly 200 years ago. It will discuss objects connected to individuals including novelist George Eliot, art and social critic John Ruskin, Water Babies author Charles Kingsley, painters Gustave Courbet and William Powell Frith, pioneer war photographer Roger Fenton and John Kibble of the Kibble Palace… plus Victoria and Albert. Did these individuals share a sense of generational identity, and how did they compare their lives with others?