Bridging the Mediterranean and Gujarat with the Turn of a Page: Picturing the Dimensions of Maritime Travel in an Extra-Illustrated Nineteenth-Century Book about India

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AbstractThis article explores the Getty Research Institute’s unique specimen of the rare book Surat, Broach, and Other Old Cities of Goojerat (Bombay: Oriental Press, 1868), written by Sir T. C. Hope (British, 1831–1915) and featuring photographs by the Bombay studio Lindley and Warren of some of the major monuments of the province of Gujarat. The copy at the Getty Research Institute (GRI) contains nineteen extra photographs that present other sites in India as well as Egyptian scenes, including some of the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869. With its additional illustrations, this book goes beyond its original purpose of showcasing South Asian architecture by pointing to the mobility and the professional preoccupations of British colonial servants who traveled to India along the newly excavated maritime route via Egypt, a journey that was also mediated through images acquired along the way.