Lot Essay
Dr. John Murray (1809-1898) was born into a farming family in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He took a degree in medicine and entered service with the East India Company in 1832. He served as field surgeon at the Battle of Alival, for which he was mentioned in despatches and awarded a medal. He became Medical Officer in charge of the Medical School at Agra in 1849, and is thought to have taken up photography around this time, making waxed paper negatives using paper exported from England manufactured by R. Turner of Kent. He was one of the earliest photographers to work in India as well as one of the earliest and greatest photographers to specialise in architectural subjects.
There was no simple method of enlarging photographs at this time and so the large format prints he favoured meant that he worked with a wooden camera which was capable of accepting negatives up to 16 x 20 inches. With this unwieldy instrument he made a series of images, unsurpassed in the 19th century, of the architecture in and around Agra, thirty of which were exhibited by J. Hogarth in London in 1857. The following year these were published with the title Photographic Views of Agra and Its Vicinity with letterpress descriptions of the plates. In 1859 a further portfolio of twenty-two photographs was published by Hogarth with the title Picturesque Views in the Northeastern Provinces of India.
During his medical career in India, Murray specialised in the treatment of cholera and was responsible for considerable improvements to the conditions for the British troops. In 1867 he became Inspector General of Hospitals in the northwestern provinces and following his retirement in 1871, he returned to England where he became president of the Epidemiological Society of London.
There was no simple method of enlarging photographs at this time and so the large format prints he favoured meant that he worked with a wooden camera which was capable of accepting negatives up to 16 x 20 inches. With this unwieldy instrument he made a series of images, unsurpassed in the 19th century, of the architecture in and around Agra, thirty of which were exhibited by J. Hogarth in London in 1857. The following year these were published with the title Photographic Views of Agra and Its Vicinity with letterpress descriptions of the plates. In 1859 a further portfolio of twenty-two photographs was published by Hogarth with the title Picturesque Views in the Northeastern Provinces of India.
During his medical career in India, Murray specialised in the treatment of cholera and was responsible for considerable improvements to the conditions for the British troops. In 1867 he became Inspector General of Hospitals in the northwestern provinces and following his retirement in 1871, he returned to England where he became president of the Epidemiological Society of London.