John Falconer, British Library
A Biographical Dictionary of 19th Century Photographers in South and South-East Asia |
Amateur, India
Employee of the Electric Telegraph Department
Letter from C.T. Buckland, officiating Commissioner of Chittagong, in response to Government request for information and photographic representations of peoples of India, notes,
‘At Chittagong, Mr Browne of the Electric Telegraph Department has kindly promised his services in taking the likenesses of the Hill Tribes peculiar to that District, but has not yet sent me a list of the tribes of whom he hopes to obtain specimens’.[1]
Browne’s progress is noted in Buckland’s letter of 24 December 1861:
‘Mr Browne has gone away from Chittagong on leave to Calcutta. He went up to Kassalong, and took some likenesses, and he took others from specimens of the Hillmen at the Station. He had not completed them when he went away, and he promised that he would in person deliver them at the Bengal Office’.[2]
A detailed description of the nine photographs submitted by Browne (of Tipperah, Comillah, Reang, Kookie, Bonjoogie and Munupuri types) is given in letter from Buckland of 16 April 1862. The descriptions were supplied by ‘Captain Graham, the Superintendent of Hill Tribes, who was present when Mr Browne took the pictures, and is the person best acquainted with the people represented’.[3]
Footnotes
- Λ Letter of 17 August 1861, Bengal General Proceedings, no.16 of December 1861, IOR/P/15/21.
- Λ Bengal Public Proceedings, no.1 of January 1862, IOR/P/15/22.
- Λ Bengal General Proceedings, no.64 of April 1862, IOR/P/15/22.
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