This photograph of La Martiniere, the oldest college in Lucknow, was taken by photographer Felice Beato (1832-1909) in 1858. General Claude Martine (1735–1800), a Frenchman, constructed La Martinere in 1795. It was intended to be a country home and was given the original name Constantia. The place was later converted into a college and served… Read more »
This engraving depicts the battle scene between the British troops led by Major Vincent Eyre and the Oudh (Oude) rebel forces in Allahabad (now, Prayagraj). The revolt of 1857 was a crucial point in India’s colonial history, marking the first widespread form of resistance to the rule of the British East India Company. It spread… Read more »
This engraving depicts the charge of the Highlanders’ 78th unit before the city of Cawnpore (now Kanpur) during the revolt of 1857. Cawnpore (now Kanpur) in Uttar Pradesh was an important fortified town for the East India Company’s forces. Kanpur was the site of a massacre on June 27, 1857, when the city’s besieged population,… Read more »
This engraving depicts British officers, a woman and a child facing the rebel soldiers while escaping during the revolt of 1857-58. The revolt of 1857 was a crucial moment in India’s colonial past and the first widespread and semi-structured form of rebellion against the rule of the British East India company. It was widespread across… Read more »
This engraving portrays a morbid scene depicting the shooting of Colonel John Platt of the 23 Regiment Bengal Native Infantry and Station Commander Mhow by the mutineers in 1857. Mhow in Madhya Pradesh was a critical battlefield during the Rebellion of 1857 in Central India. On July 1, 1857, the revolt reached Mhow, when numerous… Read more »
This engraving depicts scenes from the disarming of cavalry of soldiers by the British units at Berhampur in present-day West Bengal during the revolt of 1857. On the 27th of February 1857, Berhampur (now Berhampore) was one of the first places of sepoy insurrection in the British cantonments at Barrack Square, when the 19th Native… Read more »
This albumen photograph is of Sir Henry Tombs (1825-1874) as captured by Felice Beato. Tombs was born on 10th November 1825 in Calcutta, India. His father, Major General John Tombs, was a soldier and commanded the 3rd Bengal Cavalry at the Siege of Bhurtpore from 1824. Sir Henry completed his education and entered the Royal… Read more »
The Campaign in India 1857-58 rare book comes from Captain George Franklin Atkinson (1822–1859), the famous author of Curry and Rice, and is illustrated with forty plates. Atkinson was a Captain of the Bengal Engineers, part of the British Indian Army stationed in the Bengal Presidency. The book illustrates the British response to the Uprising… Read more »
“It was not the British government that began seizing great chunks of India in the mid-eighteenth century, but a dangerously unregulated private company headquartered in one small office….” In his 2019 book ‘The Anarchy’, this is how William Dalrymple describes the East India Company—the only trading company in the world to mint its own currency.… Read more »
Sir Robert Montgomery was a British administrator in India. He was appointed to the Indian civil service in 1827 and at the start of the Uprising of India, he disarmed the native garrisons in Lahore. He was awarded with a knighthood for this action. After the quelling of the Uprising, Montgomery served as Chief Commissioner… Read more »