The Jewels of the Pagoda

Linnaeus Tripe

January 1858 · Albumen silver print from waxed paper negative · Photographs

Tripe was a career military officer in India and, in the late 1850s, Government Photographer to the Madras Presidency. In just five years he made nearly one thousand views of India and Burma. Between December 1857 and April 1858, Tripe made an ambitious and difficult tour of India's southern districts in order to create a record for the government of the region's antiquities, scenes of historic importance, and natural phenomena. On a stop at the great temple at Srirangam, he recorded a splendid display of its treasures in a photograph that perfectly conveys the shimmering effect of sunlight on lustrous surfaces.

Artist

Linnaeus Tripe

Date

January 1858

Medium

Albumen silver print from waxed paper negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 1988