Shimla 17th May 1887: Viceregal party. Lord William Beresford, Military Secretary, Captain Leonard Gordon A.D.C., Mademoiselle Clerc, The Honorable Basit Blackwood, Major F. R. Hamilton A.D.C., Mr. Oglivie Grant, Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace K.C.E., Private Secretary, Dr. J. Findlay, Mrs. F. R. Hamilton, Master G. Hamilton, Lady Victoria Blackwood, H. E. The Countess of Dufferin, H. E. The Earl of Dufferin, Lady Hermione Blackwood, Lord Herbrand Russell, A.D.C. (recto)

1887

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a large group of British officials and their families posed outdoors in Shimla, India—men in uniforms, women in long dresses, children in suits. This photo was taken by one of India’s first professional photographers, Raja Deen Dayal. He worked for both British rulers and Indian royalty, documenting their lives in the late 1800s. The image feels stiff, like a formal portrait, but it shows real people in a place where power and culture mixed. To see more of India’s colonial past in photos, look up Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905).

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