46 Photographs from an Album (c. 1882–87): Art, History and Details

46 Photographs from an Album (c. 1882–87) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

These photographs are part of an album, now disassembled, of around 105 photographs taken in India between 1885 and summer 1887 that provide glimpses into the lives of the British colonial elite and royal and upper-class Indians. The museum holds another group of 37 pictures from this album (2016.266), which was probably commissioned by a British civil servant visiting or working in India around 1888 as a personal souvenir of his experiences there.

Object facts

• Title: 46 Photographs from an Album
• Date: c. 1882–87
• Creator attribution: Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905)
• Culture: India
• Type: Bound Volume
• Technique: 46 albumen prints on 26 sheets
• Collection: PH - Misc. 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2023.121

A detail from the museum

Raja Deen Dayal is regarded now, and was considered during his lifetime, to be India’s most important 19th century photographer.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.