Queen Elizabeth II’s First Instagram Post Is A Letter From A Mathematician

The British royal family has long realized the power of social media to connect with the adoring public. However, Queen Elizabeth II was a bit delayed in joining in on the photo-sharing fun and only made her first ever Instagram post this week.

Queen Elizabeth II made her first Instagram post when she visited London’s Science Museum on Thursday. Her Majesty decided to mark the event by posting on social media a photo of an old letter from Charles Babbage, a nineteenth-century mathematician addressed to Prince Albert, her great-great-grandfather, using the royal family’s Instagram account. The photo was also her first Instagram post.

“Today, as I visit the Science Museum I was interested to discover a letter from the Royal Archives, written in 1843 to my great-great-grandfather Prince Albert,” the queen captioned her first Instagram post. “Charles Babbage, credited as the world’s first computer pioneer, designed the ‘Difference Engine’, of which Prince Albert had the opportunity to see a prototype in July 1843.”

Her Majesty then signed the post “Elizabeth R.” The letter “R” is for the Latin word Regina, which translates to “queen” in English. The purpose of the Queen’s visit to the Science Museum was to launch a new exhibition titled “Top Secret: From Ciphers to Cyber Security.”

As the world’s longest-reigning living monarch, Queen Elizabeth saw the birth of new technologies during her reign. In 1953, for example, she became the first monarch whose coronation was covered by television.

In 1958, she was the first person to make a "trunk call" or a long-distance call within the UK. When the technology was still in its early stages, she became the first monarch to send an email in 1976. She sent the message from an Army base during a visit.

It was her two granddaughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who introduced the Queen to the concept of YouTube. In 2007, she opened her own channel and uploaded a video in 2008.

The royal family has a huge following on social media. Their Instagram account has around 4.5 million followers, while their Twitter account is followed by 3.9 million users.