The Queen’s first Instagram post delighted her fans and history-lovers alike when she talks about a very important letter in the history of science.
It’s a big day for the internet. Queen Elizabeth has arrived on Instagram.
Earlier today, while announcing the Science Museum’s free summer exhibition “Top Secret: From Ciphers to Cyber Security,” the queen shared an Instagram post about finding a letter from Charles Babbage to Prince Albert, her great-great-grandfather, in 1843.
In the letter, Charles Babbage explains his Analytical Engine to Prince Albert. Babbage is best known for pioneering the idea of computers. He created the Difference Engine, an early calculating machine that even had temporary storage in the 1820s and 1830s, and later went on to create the Analytical Engine, which the Encyclopedia Britannica explained “was to be a general-purpose, fully program-controlled, automatic mechanical digital computer.”
Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, who the queen mentions in her Instagram caption, theorized the idea of creating computer programs and is considered the first computer programmer. (See, the notion of women as computers goes farther back than NASA).
What a pure joy it is to see Queen Elizabeth promoting the Science Museum and its children’s computer coding initiatives while also reminding us of how awesome both Babbage and Lovelace were. Also, the nod to Ada Lovelace is a nice tie-in to Women’s History Month and the upcoming International Women’s Day this Friday, March 8.
The Instagram post feels like a little nugget of her Queen’s Christmas Broadcasts. Since 1962, people in Britain and around the world have been tuning into the Queen’s Christmas Broadcasts where the queen expresses her thoughts and hopes for the upcoming year. They are lovely ways to celebrate the holiday season and beautiful messages in times of need. These Instagram posts, should she decide to continue the tradition, would be a great way to connect to people as well as show her living her values.
We hope to see the queen continue to make commentary about places and ideas that she supports in future Instagram posts. There’s a lot of fabulous museums and causes that she can highlight in her touring of the UK and the world. We love this combination of family history and world history and hope she’ll continue to make these connections for us.
The royal family has had an Instagram account since 2013 and posted over 2,400 photos with 4.6 million followers. We hope to see more great Instagram moments from the Queen in the near future!