All About Alberta: Versailles Through the Eyes of a Future Dollar Princess

In January 1890, gold dazzled, white suited, and a future Countess was already learning the script of society.

Last week, I found myself standing beneath the painted ceilings of the Palace of Versailles, rereading the words of a twelve-year-old American girl who had stood there in January 1890.

That girl was Alberta Sturges.

Not yet the 9th Countess of Sandwich.

Not yet part of Britain’s aristocratic world.

Just twelve.

With a diary.

And what she noticed at Versailles tells us everything.