Simla

1865

Simla, 1865. Dr. John Murray (Scottish, 1809–1898). Waxed paper negative; image: 38 x 48.2 cm (14 15/16 x 19 in.); paper: 38 x 48.2 cm (14 15/16 x 19 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William and Margaret Lipscomb 2021.206 Before digital photography, most cameras yielded a negative, an image in which the tones are the reverse of those in the original subject. Early photographers shot on sheets of paper that were waxed to make them more translucent, then coated with a light-sensitive solution and exposed in the camera. To create a positive image, light was passed through the negative onto light-sensitive paper, which was developed in a series of chemical baths to create the print. Simla, a town in the Himalayan foothills, became the summer capital of British colonial India in 1864.