India and Southeast Asia, 1899-1900

Extent:

163 prints

Scope and content:

These photographs, taken during Shockley's travels through India and nearby areas in Southeast Asia, were chiefly meant to document mica mining operations and laterite mining in Nellore, but as always he took many other images during his travels. These feature landscapes with fields and rivers; boats on the water; and important temples and other tourist landmarks and sights. Two images refer to the "famine works" at Ahmadabad, where starving people were sent to be given rations of rice. Animals featured in this series include a lynx and cheetah, used for hunting; bats; monkeys; and buffaloes. Locations range across North and South India, including Delhi, Agra, Eluru, Nellore, Ahmadabad, Tiruchchirāppalli, and Thanjāvūr. There are also images taken in the Singapore Botanical Gardens and of the harbors of Penang (Malaysia), and Rangoon (Burma, or Myanmar). There are a few images from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon).

Of interest are the many images of people: indigenous men, women, and children, often with their dwellings or camps; local mine workers; western tourists; and English mine supervisors, two of whom are E.H. Sargent and L.L. Wickham. The latter bears a strong resemblance to the uniformed man (in his later years), featured along with his family in the modern 8x10 inch prints of images taken at an unidentified English estate.

Among Shockley's personal papers is a small (5.5 x 2.5 inches) black leather-bound notebook containing a handwritten index to Shockley's photographs taken in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Burma (Myanmar). On the front flyleaf is written, "Photographs taken in India in Dec 1899 to Feby 1900 by Wm. H. Shockley." The notebook is ruled with red margins, as if for an accounting record book. Index numbers written in the right-hand margin correspond with the numbers written on the photographs, followed by a description of the subject of the photograph. Some descriptions are more complete than others. The notebook is also accompanied by an envelope of small samples of the mineral mica collected by Shockley in India.

Processing information:

Titles have been transcribed as they appear in original captions on the backs of prints. Descriptive captions and Chinese translations of titles were supplied by library staff. Duplicate prints are indicated by an extension ".2" after the image identifier.

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