Photos of the Romanov family that you hardly saw

A close friend of Russia's last imperial family took a whole series of "unofficial" photographs of the Romanovs, enough for six albums. These albums are now held in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. We invite you to take a look at some of them.

1. Empress Alexandra. She, along with her husband and five children, were executed on July 17, 1918 during the Revolution. (beinecke_library)

2. Alexey. Alexey was the youngest of five children - at the time of his death he was 13 years old. He was heir to the throne. (beinecke_library)

3. Alexandra was obsessed with the safety of her only son, who suffered from hemophilia. (beinecke_library)

4. Olga and Tatiana. All seven members of the Romanov family were canonized as martyrs in 2000. (beinecke_library)

5. Alexandra and Tatiana. Tatyana was 21 years old when she died. (beinecke_library)

6. Alexandra and Tatiana. Mother and daughter were very close. (beinecke_library)

7. Maria, the second youngest daughter. She had blue eyes. She was 19 at the time of her execution. (beinecke_library)

8. Tatyana and Olga and Anna Vyrubova, Alexandra's maid of honor. During World War I, Tatiana and Olga worked as Red Cross nurses. (beinecke_library)

9. Tatyana. Tatyana and Olga received the rank of chief of the regiment in their teens. This made them very happy. (beinecke_library)

10. Anastasia, Tatyana and Maria. Tatyana and Olga lived in one bedroom, Maria and Anastasia in another. Olga died at 22, Anastasia at 17. (beinecke_library)

11. Alexandra. Over time, the empress became even more obsessed with her son's safety. (beinecke_library)

12. Alexei and Emperor Nicholas II. For the last weeks of his life, Alexei was confined to a wheelchair. (beinecke_library)

13. Alexey. Due to hemophilia, Alexei's games had to be monitored very closely to avoid life-threatening injuries. Relatives nicknamed him "baby". (beinecke_library)

14. Anastasia and Alexei. The two youngest. (beinecke_library)

15. (beinecke_library)