Descriptive Summary
Biographical/Historical Note
Administrative Information
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: British Occupation of Kandahār Album
Date (inclusive): 1881
Number: 2013.R.5
Creator/Collector:
Dr. Benjamin Simpson
Physical Description:
1 album
(72 photographic prints)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The album documents Kandahār and
environs following the British siege of Kandahār in 1880. Included are local landmarks,
tribal groups, occupational portraits, street scenes, and scenes of the British
occupation.
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Language: Collection material is in English
Biographical/Historical Note
Dr. Benjamin Simpson (1831-1923) had a long career as a British army surgeon, spanning five
decades from 1853 to 1890 and culminating in his appointment as Surgeon General of India. A
group of portraits he took in India was exhibited at the London International Exhibition of
1862, while other photographs were reproduced as lithographs in Colonel Edward Tuite
Dalton's
Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal (1872).
Administrative Information
Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Preferred Citation
British Occupation of Kandahār album, 1881, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles,
Accession no. 2013.R.5.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2013r5
Acquisition Information
Acquired in 2013.
Processing History
Cataloged by Beth Ann Guynn in 2013.
Digitized Materials
The collection was digitized in 2013 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2013r5
Scope and Content of Collection
The Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-1880) concluded with the British defeat of the Afghani
leader, Ayub Khan, at the Battle of Kandahār on September 1, 1880. The British withdrew from
Kandahār on April 22, 1881. This album of 72 albumen photographs taken by Dr. Benjamin
Simpson documents Kandahār and environs in the period following the September battle during
which British troops continued to occupy the area. Included are local landmarks, tribal
groups, occupational portraits, street scenes, and scenes of the British occupation. Sites
depicted include the Durrani Gate, the Baba Wali Kotal, the ruins of Kandahār Citadel;
Chilzina or the Forty Steps, and the Kerka Sharif or Shrine of the Cloak, which holds the
cloak believed to have been worn by the Prophet Mohammed.
Images related to the British army include views of the camps and barracks, officer's
quarters, the military cemetery, and the artillery and base hospital squares. Several group
portraits depict the medical staff, engineers, headquarters staff, transport officers, and
political officers. There are two group portraits of officers who were present at the siege
of Kandahār, and a group portrait of Afghan officials that includes Ghazi Mohammed Ayub
Kahn, the leader of the Afghan forces during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, his son, and the
Imran Sahib Zadah. Images 14-18, mounted on sequential leaves, form a panorama taken from
Karez Hill that encompasses Chilzina and the Murcha Pass.
The album covers are dark green leather; the front cover is detached and the spine is
missing. Photographs are mounted on 36 leaves (one photograph each, recto and verso). The
photographs are signed and/or numbered in the negatives: B. Simpson. Titles are from the
numbered letterpress captions (numbered 1-75 with omissions), affixed below most of the
photographs. Titles devised by the cataloger are enclosed in square brackets.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in a single series:
Series I. British Occupation of Kandahār Album,
1881.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Topics
Afghan Wars
Islamic shrines -- Afghanistan -- Kandahār
Tombs -- Afghanistan -- Kandahār
Subjects - Places
Afghanistan -- Description and travel
Afghanistan -- History, Military -- 19th century
Kandahār (Afghanistan) -- Antiquities
Kandahār (Afghanistan) -- Description and travel
Genres and Forms of Material
Albumen prints -- Afghanistan -- 19th century
Photographs, Original
Photograph albums -- Afghanistan -- 19th century
Contributors
Dr. Benjamin Simpson