Primary Class Bishop Cotton School, Shimla (recto); High Class Students and Teachers at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla (verso)
1884
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1884
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see two sides of one photograph: boys in uniforms lined up outside a school, then the same boys with their teachers inside a classroom. This was taken in British-ruled India by one of the first Indian photographers. The boys are from a school set up for British and wealthy Indian families. The picture feels stiff—like a school photo today—but it quietly shows how education was used to shape colonial society. To see more of India through early photography, look up Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905).
