Sunday, May 23, 2010 Vintage vignettes Pran Nevile presents some rare snapshots of India from the US Library of Congress collection ** In the recent spate of publications of old photographs, we have seen pictures of a bygone era sourced from the British Library and some private collections. We have also seen some post-1857 mutiny photographs of Delhi and Lucknow commissioned by the British patrons. In the course of my research in the Prints and Photographs Division of the US Library of Congress, I stumbled upon a most fascinating voluminous stock of photographs on India collected by one Frank G. Carpenter and also some other American visitors to India. The Carpenter Collection was donated to the US Library by his daughter in 1951 and I was the first person to discover this fabulous record of the Indian panorama. Incidentally, it was editorially acknowledged by the American Centre, New Delhi, in their magazine Span that Carpenter's collection was discovered by me and no scholar had earlier ever mentioned about it. I have been exploring the visual record of the British period to reconstruct the social and cultural scene in India during the Raj. The British libraries and museums were my favourite haunts but I was struck by the Carpenter collection, which covers the period of the late 19th to the early 20th century and contains rare images of the picturesque and exotic India and its people which are of immense historic value. Despite the primitive camera and other ancillary equipment used by the early photographers, it is noteworthy that most of the photographs are of a high standard, comparable in quality with the best of photography of that period. As the travellers and visitors to India at that time rarely carried a personal camera, they invariably bought photographs of the Indian panorama from the commercial photographers who catered to the demands of the tourists. ** [snip] http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100523/spectrum/main1.htm --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

Harsh- or anyone else who may be in the North of England, there is an extraordinary collection of 19th.century photos in airconditioned vaults in the Photographic museum in Bradford.. a really amazing collection that would take a couple of days at least to look through.. I wonder if they will put them on line, Vanya On 24 May 2010 11:45, Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar <[email protected]>wrote: > Sunday, May 23, 2010 > > Vintage vignettes > > Pran Nevile presents some rare snapshots of India from > the US Library of Congress collection > > ** In the recent spate of publications of old photographs, we have seen > pictures of a bygone era sourced from the British Library and some > private collections. We have also seen some post-1857 mutiny > photographs of Delhi and Lucknow commissioned by the British patrons. > In the course of my research in the Prints and Photographs Division > of the US Library of Congress, I stumbled upon a most fascinating > voluminous stock of photographs on India collected by one Frank G. > Carpenter and also some other American visitors to India. > > The Carpenter Collection was donated to the US Library by his > daughter in 1951 and I was the first person to discover this fabulous > record of the Indian panorama. Incidentally, it was editorially > acknowledged by the American Centre, New Delhi, in their magazine > Span that Carpenter's collection was discovered by me and no > scholar had earlier ever mentioned about it. I have been exploring > the visual record of the British period to reconstruct the social and > cultural scene in India during the Raj. The British libraries and > museums were my favourite haunts but I was struck by the Carpenter > collection, which covers the period of the late 19th to the early > 20th century and contains rare images of the picturesque and > exotic India and its people which are of immense historic value. > Despite the primitive camera and other ancillary equipment used > by the early photographers, it is noteworthy that most of the > photographs are of a high standard, comparable in quality with > the best of photography of that period. As the travellers and visitors > to India at that time rarely carried a personal camera, they invariably > bought photographs of the Indian panorama from the commercial > photographers who catered to the demands of the tourists. ** [snip] > > http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100523/spectrum/main1.htm > > --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Vanya Orr, Project Director Earth Trust Ketty Post Nilgiris, Tamilnadu, India mob.: +919787749943 office: +914232517036 www.earthtrustnilgiris.org