In Might 2023, the descendants of newbie photographer Joseph Gaye (1852-1926) donated a set of photographic materials of his views of the Kathmandu Valley and India taken between 1888 and 1899 to the British Library. Joseph’s descendant Mary-Margaret Gaye and her husband Doug Halverson spent a few years researching Joseph’s profession in South Asia and identification of his views.
We’re most grateful to Mary-Margaret and Doug for making this assortment obtainable for researchers documenting the transformation of Kathmandu earlier than the earthquake of 1934.
Joseph Gaye was born in Northfleet, Kent, in 1852. At 18, he enlisted with the 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade and went to India as a rifleman in 1873. Gaye left the military after finishing his 12-year enlistment time period in 1882 to steer a number of Indian army bands.
In 1888, he, along with his spouse, Mary Elizabeth Quick, moved to Kathmandu, Nepal, the place he served as bandmaster to the Royal Nepalese Military beneath Maharaja Bir Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana. In 1892, he grew to become a bandmaster in flip to 3 viceroys of India (Marquess of Lansdowne, Earl of Elgin, and Lord Curzon of Kedleston) earlier than returning to England in 1899.
In 1905, Gaye and his 4 sons moved to Canada, the place he died in 1926 in Lemberg, Canada. From 1888 to 1899, he produced pictures of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, Burma and India; these had been amongst his possessions, together with a big studio digital camera, on the time of his loss of life.
The Joseph Gaye assortment is an thrilling addition to the British Library, containing 91 glass negatives, 5 cellulose negatives and 32 albumen prints, primarily of the Kathmandu Valley, with a couple of from India. The topics range from structure and landscapes to avenue scenes and folks, together with portraits of his household. Gaye’s pictures offered a singular perception at a time when few foreigners had been allowed into Nepal.
Listed here are a couple of highlights from the gathering of Nepal’s architectural monuments, some that stay immediately and others which have disappeared attributable to pure disasters or city growth:
A crowd of curious onlookers gathered earlier than a constructing on the southwest nook of the Hanuman Dhoka Darbar advanced in Kathmandu Durbar Sq. (determine 1). The constructing, from 1847, was the unique Gaddhi Baithak, a palace used for coronations and for assembly international heads of state. It was within the Newar type with influences from the Mughal structure of northern India. A western façade, as seen within the {photograph}, was in all probability added later. Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana (1863-1929) of Nepal, changed it in 1908 with the neo-classical constructing that exists immediately.
Patan Durbar Sq., within the metropolis of Lalitpur, is likely one of the three Durbar Squares within the Kathmandu Valley. It has been by way of two important earthquakes in 1934 and 2015. Gaye seize the sq. earlier than these earthquakes, trying south, in direction of a crowd of observers and a line of temples and statues (determine 2).
John Alexander Dunn, an Officer of the Geological Survey of India, additionally took {a photograph} (determine 3) of the sq., trying north, after the 1934 earthquake. The one recognisable landmarks nonetheless standing are the statue of Garuda, the Krishna Mandir and the Vishwanath Temple with the elephants in entrance.
Gaye captured a winding pathway on the jap flank, main as much as Swayambhu, an historical non secular website of temples and shrines on the prime of a hill within the Kathmandu Valley (determine 4). The {photograph} reveals a pair of Buddha statues marking the start of the trail, with small chaityas, or shrines, dotted alongside the route.
{A photograph} (EAP838/1/1/5/154) taken roughly 30 years later from the Chitrakar assortment by Dirgha Man and Ganesh Man Chitraker reveals a stairway with refurbished Buddhas and chaityas on the entrance that has changed the pathway.
This text first appeared on British Library’s Asian and African research weblog.