Catherine Glynn Benkaim Collection

Seven 19th-century albumen photographs taken by Samuel Bourne, Colin Murray and unknown photographers (possibly William Johnson and William Henderson). The photographs depict various scenes and people of India, including a portrait of a hunting party in Nepal, images of the Queen Victoria Monument in Bombay and views of Dal Lake, Calcutta and Kutb Minar.

Catherine Glynn Benkaim is a trustee of the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and has a master's degree in Asian art history from U.C.L.A,. as well as a doctorate in Indian art history from the University of Southern California.

Samuel Bourne's photographic career in India, which spanned only seven years before his departure in 1870, began with his arrival in Calcutta in 1863. In Simla, he formed a partnership with two established photographers, Howard (likely William Howard) and Charles Shepherd. Howard soon left, and within a few years, Bourne & Shepherd had become the most successful firm in the subcontinent, opening additional studios in Calcutta (1867) and Bombay (1870). Colin Murray (d. 1884) became the main photographer of Bourne & Shepherd in 1870.

William Johnson had a daguerrotype studio in Bombay circa 1852-1854 and a photographic studio circa 1854-1860. In partnership with William Henderson, Johnson produced the "Indian Amateur's Photographic Album" (1856-1858).

FSA A2006.02

Benkaim, Catherine Glynn

Bourne, Samuel, 1834-1912

Murray, Colin Roderick, 1840-1884

Johnson, William

Henderson, William

Bourne and Shepherd

India

Gift of Catherine Glynn Benkaim, 2006.

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Albumen prints

Photographs

Catherine Glynn Benkaim Collection, FSA A2006.02. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Organized in one box.

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Albumen prints

Photographs

Collection is open for research.