India

Creator:: Emily Eden (1797-1869)
Description:: Hand-colored lithograph From Portraits of the Princes and Peoples of India London: J. Dickinson & Son, 1844
Curatorial Notes:: A well-educated daughter of an English diplomat, Emily Eden was a poet and novelist who spent five years traveling in India with her sister and brother, the latter serving as the British Governor General of India. Her account of the journey documents her struggles with the humidity, the political and cultural landscape. The portraits here were composed during a trip through the north, where the group met with royalty in an attempt to gain favor for the British Empire.
Photography:: David Kelly Crow

Creator:: Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) and William Daniell (1769-1837), engravers
Description:: Hand-colored aquatint From Oriental Scenery, Volumes 1-6 [Hindostan and India], Volume 1 London: T. Daniell, 1795-1808
Curatorial Notes:: In 1785, Thomas Daniell and his nephew William arrived in India by way of the permission of the East India Company. They stayed until 1794, making three major tours: from Calcutta to Srinagar (1788-91), a circular tour from Mysore to Madras (1792-3), and Bombay and its temple sites (1793). Back in England, uncle (known as an ‘artist-adventurer’) and nephew produced this, their most famous and influential work, Oriental Scenery with 144 prints paid for by subscribers not only throughout Britain, but also in Calcutta and Madras.
Photography:: David Kelly Crow

Creator:: Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) and William Daniell (1769-1837), engravers
Description:: Hand-colored aquatint From Oriental Scenery, Volumes 1-6 [Hindostan and India], Volume 1 London: T. Daniell, 1795-1808
Photography:: David Kelly Crow

Creator:: Samuel Davis, drawings; William Daniell (1769-1837) engraver
Description:: Hand-colored aquatint From Views in Bootan London: [W. Daniell], 1813
Curatorial Notes:: British officer Samuel Davis was the first Western artist to paint the Himalayas. Serving in 1783 as “Draftsman and Surveyor” to an exploratory mission sent to northern India by the British Governor, he depicts here a fort built to guard a trade route into India. His trip required local authorization, and his companion, a travel writer, states “We were in no respect abridged in the liberty of ranging where we chose; and the Raja appeared to rather encourage Mr. Davis, in taking views of different palaces, and of the various scenery exhibited by the wild and picturesque country.”
Photography:: David Kelly Crow

Creator:: Captain Richard Barron
Description:: Hand-colored aquatint From Views in India, Chiefly among the Neelgherry Hills, taken during a short residence on them in 1835, with notes and descriptive illustrations London: Robert Havell, 1837
Curatorial Notes:: The house that British aristocrat Rumbold built was actually a hotel, located upon the shores of an artificial lake in the Tamil Nadu region of southern India. Though the location is now home to the Ootacamund Club, when this image was printed in 1837, the British had a strong hold over the area, after successfully quelling the Vellore mutiny in 1806. Neither the artificial nature of the lake, nor the history of political unrest, are obvious in Barron’s scenic and calm illustration.
Photography:: David Kelly Crow

Creator:: Charles Stewart Hardinge (1822-1894), J.D. Harding, lithographer
Description:: Tinted lithograph From Recollections of India drawn in stone by J. D. Harding from the Original Drawings by the Honourable Charles Stewart Harding London: Thomas McLean, 1847
Curatorial Notes:: After graduating from Oxford, Charles Stewart Hardinge accompanied his father, the governor-general, on a trip to India which inspired this book of images. Drawn by hand and then transferred onto stone (a process called lithography), we can see here a parade entering the city of Lahore in modern day Pakistan. The immense wall, minarets and domes speak to the Indo-Gothic architecture introduced to the region by British imperialists during the 19th century.
Photography:: David Kelly Crow

Creator:: Emily Eden (1797-1869)
Description:: Hand Colored Lithograph From Portraits of the Princes and Peoples of India J. Dickinson & Son, 1844
Photography:: David Kelly Crow

Creator:: Lieutenant William Edwards (d.1890), drawings; Charles Haghe (d.1888), lithographer
Description:: Tinted lithograph From Sketches in Scinde from drawings by Lieut. Wm. Edwards, 86th. Regt. Lithographed by Charles Haghe, Esq. London: H. Graves, 1846
Curatorial Notes:: Military officers were well-placed to provide sketches of the remarkable scenery and impressive architecture of foreign lands. Lieutenant William Edwards drew this sketch in Sindh, after it was conquered in 1843 by General Charles Napier, British Army commander-in-chief in India. Drawings by British military officers served complicated dual purposes by both preserving historical and cultural details, but also showcasing British colonialism.
Photography:: David Kelly Crow

In Pursuit of the Picturesque