Titles are as follows: 'The Residency Lucknow. 1864. Showing the room where Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally wounded.', 'The Baillie Guard Gate, Lucknow', 'Fort of [?J]oghlukabad nr. Delhi', 'The Jumrood Fort with the Kyber Pass in the distance' and 'Atala Musjid, Juanpoor'.

In March 1857, Sir Henry Lawrence took up his post of Chief Commissioner and agent to the governor-general in Oudh in Lucknow. While the Mutiny broke out in Bengal and Delhi in May 1857, Lawrence was promoted to brigadier-general with military command over all troops. When the Mutiny broke out in Lucknow in 1857, it was Sir Henry Lawrence who gathered the British community including 927 Europeans and 768 native troops into the Residency which was to become a fortress against the rebel mutineers. The ensuing siege lasted for 87 days. In the battle, Lawrence was severely wounded and died on 4th July 1857.

Charles Shepherd and Arthur Robertson were commercial photographers who set up a business in Agra in 1862 before opening up in Simla in 1864. Several of their pictures are included in Watson and Kaye's The People of India. Samuel Bourne joined forces with Shepherd later that same year.