Veddahs of Ceylon (c. 1880s): Art, History and Details

Veddahs of Ceylon (c. 1880s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Scowen & Co. (British, active Ceylon, 1876–1895); Skeen & Co. (British, active 1860–1920).

The work and its context

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

The Veddahs or Veddas are an indigenous minority in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) that may have been the island’s earliest inhabitants. These men are dressed in typical scant Vedda male garb for the 19th century—loincloths tied with a rope at the waist.

Object facts

• Title: Veddahs of Ceylon
• Date: c. 1880s
• Creator attribution: Scowen & Co. (British, active Ceylon, 1876–1895); Skeen & Co. (British, active 1860–1920)
• Culture: India, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print
• Dimensions: Image: 21.3 x 28.1 cm (8 3/8 x 11 1/16 in.); Paper: 21.3 x 28.1 cm (8 3/8 x 11 1/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - British 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2018.222

A detail from the museum

The Veddahs were originally animists who believed that plants and inanimate objects had souls.

Collection credit

Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust

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.