Monument to Queen Victoria

Installed September 1902; unveiled May 27, 1903

Sculptor: Mario Raggi (1821–1907)

Commissioned in 1870, paid for and installed after the queen’s death

Bronze, on stone pedestal with bronze reliefs by J. L. Banks

Toronto, Canada

This monument was commissioned in 1870, but funds were not available to pay for the statue until after the queen’s death in 1901, when it was finally installed in Queen’s Park. Images of the decorated monument in 1910 and on Empire Day in 1913 demonstrate that it continued to serve as an important site to honor the queen’s memory long after Victoria’s death.

Two additional versions of Mario Raggi’s statue were made for other imperial cities: one was unveiled in Hong Kong in 1896, and another in Kimberley, South Africa, in 1906. Whether erected during Victoria’s lifetime or in the years after her death, statues of the queen provided a consistent symbol for British imperialism, which glossed over the disparate conditions of imperial rule in different parts of the world.

Related Media

"Queen Victoria Monument, Queen’s Park" (postcard): ceremony around the queen’s statue, 1910. "Queen Victoria Monument, Queen’s Park" (postcard): ceremony around the queen’s statue, 1910. [Toronto Public Library, Baldwin Room, Living Picture Series, call no. PC 588; http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca]

"IT WAS ALL HELD IN HER MEMORY": Statue of Queen Victoria in Queen’s Park, decorated on Empire Day’: Empire Day ceremony, May 24, 1913. "IT WAS ALL HELD IN HER MEMORY": Statue of Queen Victoria in Queen’s Park, decorated on Empire Day’: Empire Day ceremony, May 24, 1913. [The Globe (Toronto), Saturday Magazine, May 31, 1913, p. 1. Toronto Public Library; http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/]