Unveiling by Sir Charles Mitchell, Governor of Natal, on July 8, 1890. [Maby Collection, KwaZulu Natal Museum, South Africa

Statue of Queen Victoria
1890
Sculptor: Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890)
Commissioned for the Golden Jubilee
Marble, on a marble base
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
In overseas territories, the presence of statues of Queen Victoria symbolically connected remote governments to the larger imperial administration. At Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the queen’s statue was unveiled by the British colonial governor of Natal, Sir Charles Mitchell. The monument, commissioned for the Golden Jubilee, was one of many Jubilee commissions received by Joseph Edgar Boehm, the Austro-Hungarian portrait sculptor. In addition to designing the queen’s portrait for the newly-minted Jubilee coinage, he made Jubilee statues for cities in Britain and abroad, including Windsor Park, Balmoral, and Bristol, as well as Madras and Sydney.