1866
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Calcutta. The Custom House Landing Place. Shipping in the River Hoogly is a 1866 by Samuel Bourne, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a busy river port: tall ships, small boats, and a long stone building labeled “Custom House” under a hazy sky. This photo was taken in the 1860s, when the British Empire ruled India. The buildings and boats look almost untouched by time—no modern cranes or concrete. It’s a rare snapshot of Calcutta before big restorations changed the skyline. If you like old cityscapes, look up the subject: england.
The 50 images in this album, all taken in the 1860s, move from the hill towns of the Himalayas down to cities including Lahore (now in Pakistan), Delhi, Lucknow, Agra, Benares (now Varansi), and Calcutta (now Kolkata). Architectural studies of major monuments offer valuable historical records of what sites such as the Taj Mahal and the imperial mosque of the Mughal emperors in Delhi looked like before 20th-century restorations.
Samuel Bourne, the author of most the images in this album, was a banker in England before he moved to India to become a professional photographer.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Samuel Bourne was a British photographer known for his prolific seven years' work in India, from 1863 to 1870.
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