N.Tab.2021/11, 2(483)

Portrait of a group of seven Andamanese Islanders, posed with Jeremiah Nelson Homfray, Superintendent of the Andamanese Orphanage at Port Blair, in the studio of Saché & Westfield, after they had been brought on a visit to Calcutta. The visit to the Saché & Westfield studio is described by Frederic Mouat: 'At the studio of Messrs. Saché and Westfield, where several gentlemen — strangers to the Andamanese, were present when the photographs were being taken, — we encountered positive difficulty, in inducing them them to group themselves, stripped of their European clothes. The difficulty overcome, however, it is remarkable to observe how quickly they appreciated the fact that they were required to keep steady, and how willingly they did the best they could, when undergoing an ordeal, which is disagreeable even to those whose vanity it is pleasing' ('Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' August 1865, p. 144).For a larger copy of this photograph in oval format, with a note on the circumstances of the visit, see APAC Photo 1000/42 (4337). This photograph was also shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1867.