Photographic prints, circa 1861-circa 1889

Extent:

546 prints (21 boxes)

Scope and content:

Negative numbers and titles for the 546 images in the collection are transcribed from the original Bourne & Shepherd studio lists, which have been re-assembled in recent years by historians of photography in India. The original spellings and punctuation have been retained. Where there are gaps in those lists, the titles and numbers are taken from studio inscriptions on the negative or print, or from uncropped prints in other collections. The negative numbers, up to four digits long, have been used to create each print's unique identifier. There are some prints for which the negative numbers or titles are currently unknown; those without a known number have been given a unique identifier composed of UN and a sequential number (e.g., UN042).

The three large brown leather and gilt albums are titled "Northern India"; "Western, Eastern, and Southern India"; and "Farther India." They hold a total of 200 albumen prints, 191 of which are large-format (from 8x10 to 9x12 inches), mounted one per page; one exception is nine cartes-de-visite mounted on a single page.

The loose single prints are either unmounted or mounted on thin stock in most cases. Typical image sizes range from 7x9 to 10x12 inches, and if the prints are mounted, they are secured to thin stock typically measuring 9x11 to 11x14 inches. Almost all the single prints are housed in modern 16x20 inch window mats.

Many but not all of the prints in the collection are inscribed with negative numbers, short titles, and variants on the studio or photographer's name. The prints in the three albums are presented in random negative number order, but in the collection guide the entries for all the prints, loose as well as album-mounted, are listed in the same sequential negative number order as they appear in the studio's commercial list.

Specific locations featured in the images include but are not limited to: Agra; Benares (Varanasi); Bombay (Mumbai); areas of Burma (Myanmar); Bhurtpore (Bharatpur); Calcutta (Kolkata); Darjeeling; Delhi; Futtypore Sikri (Fatehpur Sikri); Gwalior; Kashmir; Lucknow; Madura (Madurai); Mussoorie; Nepal; the Neilgherries; Ootacamund (Udagamandalam); Rangoon (Yangon, former capital of Burma); Secundra; and Simla (or Shimla). There are a handful of images featuring posed groups of high-ranking Indian officials and nobility, as well as group portraits of male and female native inhabitants, often accompanied by descriptions of their ethnic group on a leaf of text. Calcutta image #1748 features the Samuel Bourne's wife, Mary (Tolley) Bourne. Otherwise there are very few images of Europeans in the collection.

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