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Home>Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1852-1860>Chronology

Introduction

Early Work in England

Return to India

The Burma Mission

South India

Note on Tripe's Prints

Photographic Printing Techniques of the 1850s

Photographic Practices of the 1850s

Chronology

Exhibition Catalog Captain Linnaeus TripeRoger Taylor, Crispin Branfoot, with Sarah Greenough and Malcolm Daniel

AudioIntroduction to the Exhibition, lecture by Sarah Greenough, exhibition curator

Audio Symposium Lecture Part 1: ''A Glorious Galaxy of Monuments': Photography and the Archaeological Survey of India after Tripe," John Falconer

Audio Symposium Lecture Part 2: "Interpreting Early Photography in India: Medium and Method," Zahid R. Chaudhary

Audio Symposium Lecture Part 3: "Measuring Time: Linnaeus Tripe’s Inscription of the Thanjavur Temple, 1858," Maria Antonella Pelizzari

PDF Download Public Symposium Program

Linnaeus Tripe in the Collection of the National Gallery of Art

Photographs Conservation

Press Release

Exhibition Checklist

# Chronology

**1807***November 21 *Cornelius Tripe marries Mary Fincham at Stoke Damerel Church. Between 1808 and 1828 they have twelve children — eight sons, including Linnaeus, and four daughters.

**1822***April 14 *Linnaeus born at 4 St Aubyn Street, Plymouth Dock; sixth son and ninth child.**1839***June 12 *Tripe formally accepted as ensign by East India Company.*August 24 *Sails from Portsmouth on *Carnatica*for Madras.*December 5 *Arrives in Madras and is assigned to 12th Madras Native Infantry.In conformity with East India Company policy, Tripe’s regiment is sent to a new posting every few years between 1839 and 1850, including Palaveram, Trichinopoly, Quillon, and Cannanore.**1840***October 3 *Promoted to lieutenant.**1850***November 27 *Granted home leave after ten years service. Sails on *Victoria*for Bombay.*December 3 *Sails on *Feroze*from Bombay to Suez en route to Great Britain.**1851***April *Arrives in England.*May 1 *Great Exhibition opens at Hyde Park, London, with first comprehensive display of cameras, equipment, and photographs submitted by British and foreign makers.*June 17 *Tripe promoted to captain.*December *Places order for unspecified equipment and materials with leading scientific instrument maker and retailer, G. Knight and Co., London.**1853***February 3 *Elected a member at the first general meeting of the newly founded Photographic Society of London.*July *Granted additional six-month leave of absence.**1854***January *Photographic Society of Devon and Cornwall is founded in Devonport, with Tripe as a member.*March *Tripe “permitted to return to duty.”*April *Leaves Southampton on *Ripon*bound for Madras.*May 31 *Returns to service with 12th Madras Native Infantry, stationed in Bangalore.*December *Travels to Mysore with fellow officer Dr. Andrew Neill to photograph at Hullabede, Belloor, and Stranan-i-billikul. Takes one hundred pictures, of which ninety-eight have been traced.**1855***January *Prints Mysore negatives.*February *Exhibits sixty-eight prints at Madras “Exhibition of Raw Products, Arts, and Manufactures of Southern India,” winning high praise from the jury.*July 18 *Officially appointed to Ava mission. Sails for Calcutta, then to Rangoon, arriving July 26.*August 1 – October 21 *Mission sails upriver from Rangoon, four vessels in all. Arrives at Prome, August 7; at Thayet Myo, August 8; at Ye-nangyoung, August 14 – 16; at Tantabeng, August 17; at Pugahm Myo, August 20 – 23; at Tsagain Myo, August 29 – 30; at Ava, Amerapoora, and Mengoon, September 1 – October 21.*October 22 – 30 *Mission leaves Ava and returns downriver toward Rangoon. Stops at Pugahm Myo, October 23 – 25, but illness prevents Tripe from taking photographs; arrives in Rangoon, October 30.*December 14 *Tripe arrives in Calcutta on *Fire Queen*from Rangoon.Prints 134 Burma photographs and sends to Lord Dalhousie, governor-general of India, and his private secretary, who pronounce them “excellent.”*December 27 *Arrives in Madras on *Hindostan*from Calcutta.*December 31 *Arrives in Bangalore.**1856***January 21 *Begins printing *Burma Views*after extensive preparations.*May 17 *Submits first report detailing progress in printing *Burma Views*; attributes high failure rate to inexperienced helpers and wax from negatives melting in sun and migrating to prints, where it causes blemishes.*July *Advised of appointment as photographer to Madras Presidency upon completion of fifty copies of *Burma Views*. Drafts mandate for new assignment.*September 6 *Reports improvement in printing output, now averaging 285 per week.*September 22 *Submits paper “On a Photographic Printing Process” for meeting of newly founded Photographic Society of Madras. Recommends Thomas Sutton’s method of toning using hyposulphite of gold as “simplest in manipulation.”*October *Adjutant Jesse Mitchell publishes “Description of a Plain or Waxed Paper Process in Photography” in *Madras Journal of Literature and Science*and mentions working method “followed by Captain Tripe and Dr Neill. . .”*November 26 *Reports completion of printing for Burma portfolio, which involved making 6,517 prints, of which 2,832 had to be rejected.**1857***March 13 *Fifty sets of *Burma Views*sent to government in Calcutta, with additional complete and partial sets of prints made during the year. Government acknowledged Tripe’s “copyright” in images by granting him permission to make sets for himself and for retail.*March – May *Tripe formally assumes role as photographer to Madras Presidency and is occupied until May photographing objects at the Madras “Exhibition of Raw Products, Arts, and Manufactures of South India.” Submits *Burma Views*to this exhibition, where photographs are praised for their “finish and delicacy.”Makes a series of formal portraits of residents associated with Madras Presidency.*May 10 *Long-standing grievances among the sepoy troops of East India Company’s native army leads to violent uprising in northern India.*December 14 *Tripe leaves Bangalore en route to Madura.**Late December 1857 – January 1858**Visits Oodenhully, Royacottah, Beekinpully, Palacode, Namculdroog, and Shungavellor.**1858***January *In Seeringham, Trichinopoly, Veralimalay, Coilputty, and Teramboor.*January – February *In Madura.*February *In Trimium.*February – March *In Poodoocottah.*March – April *In Tanjore, Triviar, and Annicut.*April *Possibly in Trichinopoly again.*March 4 *Thomas Sutton of Jersey printed pictures presented to members of the Photographic Society of Madras, including “Old Banian [*sic*] and Date trees on the bund of the Hullabede tank, and ship ‘Duke of Wellington’ in the Plymouth Dock from negatives by Captain Tripe.”*April 30 *Tripe arrives back in Madras from photographic tour.*May – June *Spends two months photographing Elliot marbles and other sculptures in the Government Central Museum, Madras. Uses dry collodion on glass for the entire series of 120 studies, which leads to some “unsatisfactory pictures.”**1859***February 4 *Tripe’s panoramic scroll of the Great Pagoda at Tanjore, shown at meeting of the Photographic Society of Madras, is highly praised.*March 3 *Tripe offers “one of his views as a negative to be printed for distribution” to members of the Photographic Society of Madras.*April 7 *Offers two more negatives to be printed for distribution to members of the Photographic Society of Madras.*May 12 *Submits fifty large views taken around Madura, Trichinopoly, and Tanjore to annual exhibition of the Photographic Society of Madras that are called “undoubtedly the best in the exhibition.” Status as official photographer precludes his receiving gold medal. Declines silver (class open to all members of society), saying he could not properly “be considered an amateur.”*May/June *Sir Charles Trevelyan, newly appointed governor to the Madras Presidency, begins reviewing expenditures, with photographic operations an early target.*June 18 *Tripe’s photographic establishment in Bangalore ordered to close.*August 2 *Tripe requests permission to complete outstanding work on the Madras series, and closure date is grudgingly extended until “end of the year.”*December 31 *Despite further appeals, Tripe is given three months to prepare detailed accounts and put affairs in order.**1860***March 18 – 19 *Packs unsold photographs, apparatus, and photographic paraphernalia and sends to the Engineering College, Madras, as instructed.*Late April *Acquires two of the unsold landscape cameras, assorted equipment, and materials from government for his private use.*Late May *Receives permission from government to retain negatives (now in the collection of the Royal Photographic Society, National Media Museum, Bradford).*June 23 *Submits final accounts to government and forwards them to civil auditor for scrutiny.*August *Granted furlough on grounds of ill health.*September 7 *Civil auditor seeks clarification, stating that “he will ask Captain Tripe to go over the accounts with me.”*October 26 *Accounts finally “checked and found correct.”*November *Tripe returns to England on furlough, granted on medical grounds, his health “impaired by such continuous labour and anxiety” over twenty months overseeing the closure of the photographic establishment.

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