965
main subjects appear ostensibly as the grand edifi ces of
Mughal palace precincts and fortifi cations yield to the
persistent observer the contrast of vernacular habitations
of indigenous peoples.
Murray’s documentation of such places coincided
with European scholarship toward the systematic grasp
of India’s place in world culture. Historians under the
new Raj especially venerated the achievements of the
great Mughal dynasties, sometimes at the expense of
India’s Hindu past. Murray himself was acknowledged
in the English press of the period as contributing to ef-
forts to preserve the Taj Mahal (“Mofussil letters, Agra
Dec 31, 1863,” The Englishman, Jan 7, 1864), and the
evidence of restoration is visible in certain of his pic-
tures of Akbar’s Palace and Agra Fort. Hence, however
compelling subsequent photographers found the red
sandstone and marble forts, palaces, and mosques,
and other edifi ces of Britain’s powerful predecessors,
Murray’s pictorial interests were well informed by his
commitment to service and abiding concern for securing
the cultural heritage of his adopted home.
Gary D Sampson
Biography
John Murray was born in November 1809, to Alexander
Murray, a farmer in Blackhouse, Aberdeen County,
Scotland. He received his M.D. at Edinburgh in 1831,
successfully passed his examination to become Assistant
Surgeon with the United East India Company in 1832,
arriving in India the following year. By 1848 he was
full Surgeon at Agra, made Deputy Inspector General
in 1858, following nearly a year’s leave in London dur-
ing the Indian Rebellion, rising to Inspector General in
- His peak period of photography began in the mid
1850s and lasted until the early 1860s, which resulted
in hundreds of views of Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri,
Cawnpore, Benares, and elsewhere, many associated
with the 1857 hostilities and Mughal India, and at least
in part made at the request of Lord Canning, Governor
General of India at the time. His method of choice was
an variation of LeGray’s waxed process, where the
negative was waxed twice for greater detail—once be-
fore sensitization and once after exposure. His pictures
appeared in a number of exhibitions and publications
through his associations with the Bengal Photographic
Society and with John Hogarth in London (see bibliog-
raphy), and some were translated to wood engraving as
witnessed in the Illustrated London News. He retired in
1871, leaving India, and died at Sherringham, Norfolk,
July, 1898.
Gary D. Sampson
See also Felice Beato; John McCosh; Societies,
groups, institutions, and exhibitions in India; India
and Afghanistan; Waxed paper negative processes;
Architecture; History; Topographical photography;
Harriet and Robert C. Tytler.Further Reading
Bayly, C.A., ed., The Raj: India and the British 1600–1947,
London: National Portrait Gallery, 1990.
Catalogue of Pictures in the Exhibition of the Photographic
Society of Bengal, 4th March 1857, Calcutta: Cranenburgh,
Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1857: 10–11.
Dehejia, Vidya, India Through the Lens: Photography 1840–1911,
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2000.
Metcalf, Thomas R., Ideologies of the Raj. III.4, The New Cam-
bridge History of India, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1994.
Murray, John, Photographic Views in Agra, and Its Vicinity,
London: J. Hogarth, 1858.
———, Picturesque Views in the North Western Province of
India, London: J. Hogarth, 1859.
Pelizzari, Maria Antonella (ed.), Traces of India: Photography,
Architecture, and the Politics of Representation, 1850–1900,
Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, and New Haven:
Yale Center for British Art and Yale University Press, 2003
Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615–1930, compiled by
Lieut. Col. D.G. Crawford. London: W Thacker and Co,
1930: 1220.MURRAY, RICHARD (UNKNOWN) AND
HEATH, VERNON (1819–1895)
The career of Murray and Heath can be divided into two
phases. In late 1855 or early 1856, Richard Murray and
Vernon Heath began a fi rm of opticians, specialising in
scientifi c and philosophical equipment. During the fol-
lowing fi ve years, they built a reputation as one of the
premier fi rms supplying photographic apparatus and
material. As well as a their own design of stereoscope
and carte-de-visite cameras, Murray and Heath’s stock
included a variety of accompanying lenses, camera
stands and special fi eld boxes for outside work. Other
scientifi c equipment sold by the fi rm ranged from opera
glasses and microscopes to galvanic batteries.
Little is known about Richard Murray aside from the
fact that he worked for a period at Newman’s opticians
in Regent St, which supplied stereoscopic lenses to Sir
Charles Wheatstone in 1832. Vernon Heath (1819–1895)
was the nephew of Lord Vernon, the art philanthropist
who bequeathed his extensive collection of paintings to
the National Gallery. Heath’s reminiscences were pub-
lished in 1892. They detail his career and constitute one
of the fi rst book-length memoirs by a photographer.
Many notable photographers and institutions used
Murray and Heath’s optical equipment. The fi rm sup-
plied apparatus to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in
1857, a privileged position that they advertised through
their catalogues, all of which carry the royal arms. Other
customers included the Board of Trade, the Foreign
Offi ce, Admiralty, and the East India Company. The