Sixty Years a Queen
1913 film by Bert Haldane
Sixty Years a Queen is a 1913 British silent historical film directed by Bert Haldane and starring Blanche Forsythe, Louie Henri and Fred Paul.
Outline
The film portrays the six decade-long reign of Queen Victoria, serving as a wider depiction of the Victorian era and its leading British figures. It was based on the 1897 non-fiction work of the same title by Sir Herbert Maxwell, 7th Baronet which had been written to celebrate Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
Production
The film was conceived in 1912 at a meeting between G. B. Samuelson and his brother Julian Wylie. Samuelson was looking for his first film project, and later brought in Will Barker as his co-producer. The picture was largely filmed at Barker's newly built Ealing Studios, where Barker gained a reputation for extravagant productions, often historical.
A great deal of money was invested in Sixty Years a Queen, and more than a thousand actors and extras were employed, on many locations. There was also much advance publicity. The picture was a great success at the box-offices, making the producers a profit of some £35,000.
More than twenty years later Herbert Wilcox made a similar film, Sixty Glorious Years, which was also very popular.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Sixty Years a Queen” as 1913 film by Bert Haldane. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1913 film by Bert Haldane. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19895907. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1897 and 1912.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sixty Years a Queen”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sixty Years a Queen primary sources, Sixty Years a Queen archive and Sixty research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sixty Years a Queen”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sixty Years a Queen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.