"Benares. Temples near burning ghat." [ now Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh]. Marked up as cover of the Chronicle of the London Missionary Society. Bourne negative number 1170.; Number 68 of a set of 88 mounted albumen prints, originally numbered 1 to 123. Ralph Wardlaw Thompson was Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society from 1881 to 1914, then Secretary Emeritus until his death in 1916. He led the Deputation which took place between September 1882 and April 1883, during which time, a number of these prints may have been taken or acquired. The subject matter of some of these prints suggest they were taken by Dr. Thompson or one of his missionary colleagues, although others are clearly commercial prints purchased at the time by photographers such as Samuel Bourne. Many of these prints were loaned to the Norwich Missionary Loan Exhibition
International Mission Photography Archive, ca.1860-ca.1960
