India 's Archived Imags from 18th century

These Archive images allow us to share the early experiences of the British in India and to consider how the spread of photography enabled individuals to express their sense of wonder back to those in Britain.

According to John Falconer, guest curator of the display and Head of Visual Materials and Curator of Photographs at The British Library: 'Given the difficulties of working the early photographic processes in a tropical environment, both amateur and commercial photographers in nineteenth-century India produced an astonishingly sophisticated and compelling body of work. The images illustrate the technical and aesthetic confidence with which these pioneers tackled the diverse range of subject matter offered in the subcontinent'.

Take a look a few of them dated from 1800's from the time of my great great grandfather.

Photograph:
Thousands of bathers at a tank at Kumbakonam by an unknown photographer. Kumbakonam is a temple town about 40 km from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu; its most famous temple is the Lord Sarangapani Temple. This is probably a shot of the Mahamaham Tank where a special mela takes place every 12 years.
Photograph courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Photograph:
A group of carved Indian figures shot by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson.

Hill, an artist, and Adamson, a photographer, pooled their knowledge of lighting, composition and cameras to put together a fine collection of 3,000 photographs.

Photograph Courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Photograph:
An evocative shot of the Mussaman Burj and the Yamuna river taken from Agra Fort, again by John Murray in 1857.

Mussaman Burj is located in the Anguri Bagh within the Agra Fort but on the river and was said to be Mumtaz Mahal's residence. It now offers a view of the Taj Mahal, where she is buried. It was also where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb and where he died.
Photograph: Courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Photograph:

This picture of Mohan Lal Zutshi, a Kashmiri, was shot in 1844, when he was 28, by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. Mohan Lal, who hailed from Delhi, was a spy and advisor for the British government in Afghanistan. He later published his memoirs.

This photograph was taken when he visited Scotland in 1844. He began his service with the British under Sir Alexander Burnes who was on an espionage mission to Afghanistan. Burnes was killed in the 1841 Afghan uprising and Mohan Lal later ventured to England and Scotland. He later became a commercial agent for the British in Kabul but retired at 32 and subsequently died in obscurity. The negative for this photograph was re-discovered 150 years after it was shot and was developed.
Photograph: Courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Photograph:

Mussucks or skin boats for crossing the Beas river below Bajoura near Kullu by Samuel Bourne circa 1863.
Bourne, who left a bank job to purusue photography, was one of the most famous photographers of the British Raj.
He spent six years in India travelling from Chennai to Kolkata and then by road from Kolkata to Shimla. He also trekked on the Great Hindustan-Tibet road as well as extensively within Kashmir. His photographic studio -- Bourne and Shepherd -- opened in 1869, still survives on the Esplanade in Kolkata and is one of the oldest in the world. Incidentally, an air-filled skin boat is the oldest type of boat in the world and these boats were probably made from sheep skin.
Photograph: Courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Photograph:

The gateway to Akbar's tomb photographed by Dr John Murray (who shot views of Mussaman Burj pictured in an earlier slide). Murray was posted as a civil surgeon in Agra in 1848 where he amassed pictures of Agra's prettiest buildings as well expert knowledge on cholera. He exhibited his photographs of India when he came to London on leave in 1857. He also published them in a book titled Picturesque Views in the North Western Provinces of India. Apparently, only two copies of this book exist today.

Photograph: Courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery






Photograph:
Buildings in the fort at Agra by John Murray.
Murray was an amateur Scottish photographer who was posted as a surgeon and an officer in 1830 the Bengal Medical Service which was attached to the East India Company. Most of his best pictures were of architecture and he was probably the first person to the photograph the Taj from a variety of interesting angles.
Six hundred of his pictures are archived with the India Office of the British Library.
Photograph: Courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Photograph:
A shot of a religious procession in Madura (Madurai) taken by an unknown photographer.
Madurai, located on the Vagai river and known as a city of festivals, came under the rule of the East India Company in 1801.

Photograph: Courtesy Scottish National Portrait
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