Photo 296/1

Album bound in Burmese silk (in poor condition, with spine piece torn and covers loose), measuring 320x445mm. Prints mounted one per page with contemporary handwritten captions beneath each photograph. The album pages are fairly light and lack of support given to prints has led to bending and some cockling.

The earliest dated photograph taken by Felice Beato in Burma records the boat races at Mandalay in honour of the visit of Prince Albert Victor on 26 Dec 1889 (see print 62), but he may already have been in the country for a year or more by this time. The majority of the other general topographical and architectural views probably date from around this period also. The only other precisely datable views in the album are those relating to the Wuntho Sawbwa Campaign of Feb-Mar 1891. Print 64, which purports to date from the period before the fall of King Thibaw (that is, before the end of 1885), is probably (if it is a Beato photograph) of a later date. While Beato claimed to have arrived in Burma at the time of the annexation in 1886 (see George W. Bird, Wanderings in Burma (Bournemouth and London, 1897), p.291), he probably in fact arrived a year or two later. It is of course possible that this particular photograph is the work of another operator.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1842-1902) entered the Indian Civil Service in 1862 and was appointed Chief Commissioner of Burma in 1890. From 1895-98 he served at Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.