The History of the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi, held on the 1st January, 1877

Printed volume of 248 printed pages by James Talboys Wheeler containing Woodburytypes. These include studio portraits of the Queen, Lord Lytton, and eleven Indian rulers; a group of the Khan of Khelat with Chiefs and Ministers; seven views of historical remains in Delhi; and five of scenes at the Durbar at which Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. 'The original photographs, with some exceptions, were taken by Messrs Bourne and Shepherd' (Wheeler 1877, p.vi) but there is no indication of the exceptions. In the following list, non-photographic illustrations and maps in the volume have been ignored; the number in brackets is the page which the plate faces. All portraits are 120 x 190 mm; measurements of others are given.

James Talboys Wheeler was born in Oxford in 1824 and, after a private school education, started a business as a publisher and bookseller. Having had little success with this venture he joined the War Office before going to India in 1858 as editor of the 'Madras Spectator'. That same year he left journalism for an academic post at Madras presidency college. After a successful project in historical research for the Madras government, Wheeler became a civil servant for the Indian government writing historical and political summaries which, although printed, were not published and used only internally. During this employment, he spent his leisure time writing a history of India, the first volume of which was published in 1867, and this working pattern, with further publications, continued until his retirement in 1891. He died in Ramsgate in 1897.

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Includes index.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

This collection is available on microfiche: South Asia, fiche number 33.

Good condition.

The full citation for this item is: Wheeler, James Talboys (1877), 'The history of the imperial assemblage at Delhi', London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer.

This collection level description was entered by SG using information from the original typescript catalogue.

Wheeler, James Talboys, 1824-1897