Outram Institute, Calcutta
1850s
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Image: 16.8 x 24.7 cm (6 5/8 x 9 3/4 in.) Mount: 21 x 28.1 cm (8 1/4 x 11 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.948.2 (18)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Captain R. B. Hill's *Outram Institute, Calcutta*, albumen silver print from the 185s, offers a captivating glimpse into mid-19th-century colonial. As a British military officer, Hill was among the pioneering photographers who documented the architectural marvels of Calcutta (now Kolkata), the bustling capital of British India. The image captures the stately Outram Institute, alassical building named after General James Outram, a hero of the Anglo-Persian and Indian campaigns. Erected as a public library and cultural hub, it symbolized British imperial presence and intellectual ambition amid t...
About the Artist
Captain R. B. Hill
Captain R. B. Hill was a British artist whose work appears to have emerged from a tradition of amateur and military draughtsmanship that flourished in Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Precise dates and full biographical details have not been established in the major art historical literature, but the military rank attached to his name situates him within the significant trad...