Stewart Albums

A collection of 22 annotated albums of snapshots taken between 1908 and the Russian Revolution, in 1917, by Herbert Galloway Stewart. The albums were compiled by Herbert Galloway Stewart (1866 -1960), who was employed by the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia (1875-1960) as a tutor for her son, Prince Andrew Alexandrovitch Romanoff (1897-1981) between 1908 and 1916.

Herbert Galloway Stewart carefully arranged his snapshots into albums, with hand-written notes – much like a family album. However, as an English tutor working abroad, Stewart was not a member of the Russian royal family, which makes the intimacy of these albums remarkable. Stewart photographed picnics, sledging trips and gatherings with family and friends, including Tsar Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia. In 1917, revolution gripped Russia, ending over three hundred years of Romanov rule. Stewart returned to Britian in 1918, following a perilous journey home.