Object of the week: Behind-the-scenes of a royal Indian tour
By ship, by yacht, by elephant and by camel. We follow the heir to Queen Victoria on an elaborate tour of India in 1875
19th century India
Object of the week: Notes from a solo woman traveller in India
Fanny Parkes’s richly illustrated journals give us a sense of the freedom that the author experienced as a woman traveller in 19th-century India
Line of march of Bengal Regiment of Infantry in Scinde
‘Line of March of Bengal Regiment of Infantry in Scinde’ is illustrated by Frederic Peter Layard (1818-91), who was enlisted as an ensign in the East India Company’s armed forces. Layard shared a passion for art with many of his colleagues in the civil and military services of the East India Company. This book illustrates… Read more »
Bombay in the Days of Queen Anne, Being an Account of the Settlement written by John Burnell
This is the 1st Ed. No. LXXII, in the Second series of the Bombay in the Days of Queen Anne. As a official of the East India Service, John Brunell arrived to the subcontinent in the latter half of the 17th century. This book has an introduction by Samuel T. Sheppard and includes Brunell’s two… Read more »
Talookdars of Oude (Taluqdars of Awadh)
Oude is the anglicisation of Awadh—itself a derivation of Ayodhya, capital of the ancient kingdom of Kosala. Awadh was one of the 12 original provinces or subahs defined by Mughal emperor Akbar. It was governed by a subedar, under whom sprawled a network of taluqdars, members of a land-owning aristocracy responsible for collecting revenues from… Read more »
Wanderings of a Pilgrim, in search of the Picturesque, Vol I
This mid 19th-century book by Fanny Parkes Parlby is an account that illustrates her independent travels in India. Fanny Parkes, born as Frances Susanna Archer in 1794, arrived in Calcutta from England in 1822 and eventually set out on solo explorations, sometimes on horseback or a boat, across India. She pieced together her account from… Read more »
The Jahaz Mahal, Mandu
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
The Delhi Gate, Mandu
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
The Marble Mausoleum of the Sultan Hoossain Shah Ghuree
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
Palace of the Sultan Baz Bahadoor, and Pavilion of Roop Muttee, his Queen
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
View of the Modern Village of Mandoo and the ancient mosque Jumah Musjid
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
Front View of the Ruined Mosque, the Jumah Musjid
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
Bourne & Shepherd’s Royal Photographic Album of Scenes and Personages, 1876
This album documents the extensive tour of the Indian subcontinent undertaken by the Prince of Wales, Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria. Prince Edward travelled widely across India between November 1875 to May 1876. Following the revolt of 1857, the British Royals embarked on long tours to establish relations with their colonies and… Read more »
Plague Visitation, Bombay, 1896-1897
This album captures the arrival of the bubonic plague in Bombay in 1896 and 1897. It documents the circumstances of the time and the plague’s progression into becoming one of the deadliest pandemics of 19th century India. Acacio Gabriel Viegas, a Portuguese medical practitioner, recognized the plague in Bombay at Mandvi in September 1896. Regarded… Read more »
Untitled CdV Album
This CdV photo card album comes with a maroon cover, and a raised golden decoration on its binding. It contains 40 photographic prints inside card mounts that have gilded edges. This album contains images of Maharajas of different regions, some saints, other men and women of prominence, as well as of their servants. Some of… Read more »
India and its Native Princes
On June 20, 1864, French writer and photographer Louis Rousselet boarded the Veetis, an English steamer bound for the east, from Marseilles. He arrived in Bombay in the middle of monsoon in early July, and stayed on in India for six years, travelling the country and photographing his observations. At the end of his travels,… Read more »
Wanderings of a Pilgrim; Rarebook by Fanny Parkes Parlby
‘Wanderings of a Pilgrim, in Search of the Picturesque, During Four-and-Twenty Years in the East; With Revelations of Life in the Zenana’ was authored by Fanny Parkes Parlby. Published by P. Richardson in 1850, the rarebook includes several illustrations and offers a British female perspective on Indian life in the 19th century.