Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman were among the thousands who flocked to see the magical electric light at work.
The customary decorations have changed little in the years since that picture of Victoria and Albert's tree first appeared, although of course electric lights have replaced the candles.
For reference, when he was born in about 1832, electric light bulbs didn't exist, Britain's Queen Victoria was a teenager and no one had ever been photographed.
" You wouldn't believe it, first I 'ad to put in a bathroom, and then I 'ad to put in the electric light, and then nothin' would satisfy them but I must 'ave a telephone. What they'll want next I can't think" .