Landing goods near the Custom House, Calcutta, 1865 (b/w photo)

View of sailing ships moored on Hooghly River from 'Views of Calcutta and Barrackpore' taken by Samuel Bourne in the 1860s. These sailing ships, some with auxiliary steam, were moored at Custom House Ghat on the banks of the Hooghly river by the south end of Fort William. Off-loaded barrels are pictured in the foreground. By the 1860s, commercial photography was becoming well-established in India and this growing market attracted the young Nottingham photographer Samuel Bourne to the subcontinent in 1863. During a residence of seven years, Bourne produced thousands of landscape and architectural views, but his fame and the success of his studio, rests primarily on the results of three arduous photographic expeditions to Kashmir and the Himalayas.