Pratt (Henry Marsh) Album, 1858-1906

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Summary

Title:
Henry Marsh Pratt album
Dates:
1858-1906
Creators:
Pratt, H. M. (Henry Marsh), 1838-1919 and Shepherd, Charles, (Photographer)
Abstract:
The album, which Lieutenant Colonel Henry Marsh Pratt began compiling in 1868, offers a uniquely personal record of Pratt's professional and family connections in both India and England. Depictions of the Pratt family of Norfolk, England, with frequent appearances by Henry Marsh Pratt, and views of country homes associated with the Pratt family circle made by unidentified amateur and professional photographers, are mingled with views of India by professional photographers such as Samuel Bourne, Charles Shepherd, and William Henry Baker (also represented as W. Baker & Co. and Baker & Burke), and with carte-de-visite-sized portraits and views by photographers working in Europe and India, including André́-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri; Charles H. Reutlinger; Hills & Saunders; the London Stereoscopic Company; and Window & Bridge.
Extent:
1.5 Linear Feet (1 album)
Language:
Collection material is in English.
Preferred citation:

Henry Marsh Pratt album, 1858-1906, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2018.R.25.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2018r25

Background

Scope and content:

The album, which Lieutenant Colonel Henry Marsh Pratt of the Bengal Staff Corps began compiling in 1868, offers a highly personal record of Pratt's professional and family life and connections in both India and England. Depictions of the Pratt family of Norfolk, England, with frequent appearances by Henry Marsh Pratt, and views of country homes associated with the Pratt family circle made by both unidentified amateur and professional photographers, are mingled with views of India, including images taken by an amateur photographer(s) in which Pratt is present, as well as those made by professional photographers such as Samuel Bourne, Charles Shepherd, and William Henry Baker (also represented as W. Baker & Co. and Baker & Burke), and with carte-de-visite-sized (i.e. mostly unmounted) portraits and views by photographers working in Europe and India, including André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri; Charles H. Reutlinger; Hills & Saunders; the London Stereoscopic Company; and Window & Bridge. The album was added to into the early twentieth century. Contributions to it were made by members of the extended Pratt family, who are referenced throughout the album.

The album contains 22 large photographs; 52 photographs of various smaller sizes; 74 carte-de-visite-sized photographs; and six prints in various media. Two loose photographs were also inserted in the album. Also in the album are four watercolor sketches of country homes (one signed "Eva" and another "Evelyn Faskin," both likely by Pratt's youngest sister Evelyn): three are of homes in England and one is of H. M. Pratt's home in Abbottabad, India. Twenty-four pages of the album are decorated with watercolor borders signed variously B. & L.; Eva; L. L. P. (Laura Louisa Pratt); and Harriet Pratt. The borders range from geometric designs, some of an Indian or eastern nature, to florals, and to charming vignettes and motifs that often relate to the photographs they surround. For example, views of the Gaynes Park manor house are bordered with depictions of fruits, vegetables, and agricultural motifs, while the photographs of the 1871-1872 Edwardesabad hunt season are surrounded by hunt scenes and devices.

Indian subjects include views of Kashmir (Srinagar, the Jhelum River, and the Himalayas) and Dharamshala; a view of the Taj Mahal; group portraits of Kashmiri Nautch girls, Tibetans, and Affreedies (Khyber Rifles); and two group portraits related to HRH Edward, Prince of Wales's visit to India in 1876. Wales himself appears seated in the center of the large group assembled in Lahore. The album also contains views of Sandringham, his country home in Norfolk. Carte-de-visite-sized portraits of personages with connections to India include British army officers, doctors, and others associated with the Punjab and Sikh regiments of the North West Frontier Expeditions; military wives; Indian officers such as Subadar Major Gomandha Singh and Mahammad Hayat Khan; and the explorer and author Robert Shaw and his daughter, Clara Shaw Younghusband, who appear in Central Asian dress. Most of these portraits are found in the later pages of the album along with portraits of friends and family members, actors, courtesans, royalty (Napoleon III; Empress Eugénie; Louis Napoléon, Prince Impérial; Prince George, Duke of Cambridge; Princess Alexandra of Denmark), and other English and European personalities of the day.

A few images are unrelated to either England or India. The album opens with two views of the pyramids of Gizeh by Wilhelm Hammerschmidt. Found in later pages of the album are two full plate views of Hyrès, France, signed G. J.

The album is half bound in dark brown calf with gilt tooling and brown pebble-grained cloth boards. In most cases English captions are written on the album mounts above or below the images; these captions are used as image titles unless otherwise noted.

Biographical / historical:

Colonel Henry Marsh Pratt (1838-1919) was the son of the Reverend William Pratt of Harpley, Norfolk, and a descendant of Edward III. In November 1856 he joined the Indian Staff Corps, his section of which became the Bengal Staff Corps in 1861. He was present at the 1857 mutiny of the 51st Bengal Infantry; served in the Second Anglo-Chinese War in 1860; took part in the march from Kabul to Kandahar and the battle of Kandahar during the second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878-1880; and commanded a column of the Hazars Field Force during the 1888 Black Mountain Expedition (Tor Ghar, now northwestern Pakistan). Pratt was made Companion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath (CB) when he retired from the British army in 1889. He married Evelyn Margaret Freake Glyn in 1891 and they had two daughters, Pleasance Millicent Mary Pratt and Evelyn Lucy Pratt.

Sources consulted:

Buckland, Charles Edward, "Pratt, Henry Marsh (1838-)," Dictionary of Indian Biography. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1906.

Cox, Horace, "Pratt, Col. Henry Marsh," Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. London: Horace Cox, 1912.

Ruvigny et Raineval, Melville Henry Massue, marquis de, The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Mortimer-Percy Volume. Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books, 2011.

Terpak, Fran, "Acquisition Approval Form for Pratt Family Album, ca. 150 albumen photographs from India and Norfolk, 1860s and 1870s," accession no. 2018.R.25, April 6, 2018.

Acquisition information:
Acquired in 2018.
Processing information:

Beth Ann Guynn wrote the finding aid in 2020.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in a single series: Series I. Henry Marsh Pratt album, 1858-1906.

Physical location:
Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Beth Ann Guynn
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-03-19 09:07:57 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Preferred citation:

Henry Marsh Pratt album, 1858-1906, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2018.R.25.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2018r25

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
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