An approximately dated print

Wellcome Collection reference 569626i identifies a Golden Temple photograph by Felice Beato, approximately 1858. The record describes an albumen photographic print measuring 21.6 by 28.9 centimetres and transcribes the lettering Umritsur. Its online title retains an approximate date even though the creation field presents 1858 without that qualifier. The licensed digital image reproduced here shows temple buildings reflected in the pool; it is not an inspection of the physical print. Preserve the approximation in a caption and retain the object reference. Neither this record nor its availability online demonstrates that the picture was Amritsar’s first photograph.[1]

A qualified attribution

Rijksmuseum object RP-F-F02458 is dated 1864 and attributed to Samuel Bourne. That wording matters: it is a qualified attribution, not an instruction to replace the museum’s uncertainty with a definite maker. The albumen image measures 215 by 290 millimetres, while its support measures 238 by 318. The record also preserves a Golden Temple title, a Bourne-related mark and the numbers 86 and 407. These details can help compare records without treating every number as a date or accession. Keep the photograph’s dimensions separate from those of its mounting sheet when recording the object.[2]

An album is not an exposure

Royal Collection RCIN 2701788 belongs to volume four of the Prince of Wales’s 1875–6 Indian tour photographs. The albumen image is credited to Bourne and Shepherd. The catalogue explains that the six albums combine existing commercial photographs with pictures specially taken for the tour. That general production history warns against assigning the tour dates automatically to every exposure. It does not prove that this particular Golden Temple image was taken earlier. Retain the album context and the catalogue’s uncertainty together.[3]

An unidentified maker in an inventory

The Getty Research Institute’s Views of India finding aid offers a further contrast. In collection 90.R.42, Golden Temple items 90.R.42-8r and 90.R.42-8v have unidentified photographers and negative numbers 476 and 475. The collection’s broad 1860–1890 date range does not give either view an exact year. Names attached to other photographs in the album cannot fill that gap. The finding aid separately records digitisation in 2024 and was produced in January 2025. Those modern dates describe archival work and its description, not the nineteenth-century making of the two images. An unknown maker should remain unknown in a research note.[4]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Wellcome Collection. The Golden Temple, Amritsar, India: Felice Beato photograph, 569626i ↗institutional photograph catalogue · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Title and approximate date, creation field, albumen photographic print dimensions, lettering, reference 569626i and Public Domain Mark. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual relevant complete object record read. Provider-supplied digital image downloaded and visually inspected, with the Public Domain Mark notice and deed checked. The original physical print was not examined. The approximate title date is preserved, with no claim that this is the first photograph.Return to An approximately dated print, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Rijksmuseum. Golden Temple in Amritsar, RP-F-F02458 ↗institutional photograph catalogue · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Complete relevant object metadata: attributed Samuel Bourne, 1864, albumen process, image/support sizes and recorded markings; persistent ID 200324030. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual complete relevant object record read. Attribution remains qualified. No original mount, inscription or online image was independently examined, and no Rijksmuseum image is reproduced.Return to A qualified attribution, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Royal Collection Trust. The Golden Temple, Umritsur (Amritsar), RCIN 2701788 ↗institutional photograph catalogue · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Relevant full object body: 1875–76 tour album volume 4, Bourne & Shepherd, albumen dimensions and six-album production explanation. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual relevant catalogue body supplied by the search reader. Direct opening supplied only a wrapper. The general note says the albums combine existing commercial photographs with specially taken ones; it does not identify this particular exposure as earlier. No album image was independently examined.Return to An album is not an exposure, paragraph 1 ↑
  4. Getty Research Institute. Views of India, 90.R.42: collection finding aid ↗institutional photographic finding aid · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Actual 15-page finding aid: PDF pages 3–5 summary, scope and digitisation; page 7 Amritsar items 90.R.42-8r and -8v; produced 29 January 2025. Accessed 2026-11-02.Actual relevant full PDF text inspected. The collection range 1860–1890 is not an individual image date. Both selected Amritsar photographers remain unidentified; the named makers of other images are not transferred to them. Album images were not examined or reproduced. Digitisation in 2024 is a separate event.Return to An unidentified maker in an inventory, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-COL-0064 · English edition · human review not performed