Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1706

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

.42 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Willoughby Wallace Hooper cartes-de-visite album of South and Southeast Asia, circa 1885-1886, Ms. Coll. 1706, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

circa 1885-1886 (inclusive)

Creator:

Hooper, Willoughby Wallace, 1837-1912

Form:

cartes-de-visite (card photographs), Photograph albums, Portraits, and Photographs

Abstract:

This small photo album contains 19 black and white carte-de-visite photographs of the people of South and Southeast Asia including Burma and India, who were photographed around 1885-1886, by British Indian Army officer Willoughby Wallace Hooper (1837-1912), while stationed in India.

Willoughby Wallace Hooper was born on February 4, 1837, in Brixton, London borough of Lambeth, Greater London, England to William Thomas Hooper (1805-1885) and Maria Wood Hooper (1809-1880).

He began his career in 1853 as a junior clerk in the Secretary's Department of the East India House, the London headquarters of the East India Company. He left the company in 1858 upon being commissioned into the 7th Madras Light Cavalry of the British Indian Army. Known as a competent, amateur photographer, Hooper was transferred to the 4th Cavalry, stationed at Saugor and Secunderabad in 1862 and released from military duties to produce photographs for the People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations, with Descriptive Letterpress, of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan, to which he contributed nearly five hundred photographs of the peoples of the Central Provinces of India.

In the late 1860s, he entered into a commercial photography venture with George Western. Operating under the name Hooper and Weston, the firm produce photographs and portraits of Anglican life in British India, including a series of staged photographs entitled "Tiger Shooting." Hooper also photographed victims of the Madras Famine of 1876-1878.

All the while, Hooper remained in military service and advanced in rank becoming Captain in 1870; Major in 1878; Lieutenant Colonel in 1884 and Colonel in 1888. He served as Provost Marshal of the Burma Expeditionary Force in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885-1886. He documented the military expedition and region and published the photographs as Burmah: A series of one hundred photographs illustrating incidents connected with the British Expeditionary Force to that country from the embarkation at Madras, 1st November 1885, to the capture of King Theebaw, with many views of the surrounding country, native life and industries, and most interesting descriptive notes by Lieut-Col W.W. Hooper in 1887.

Hooper's photographs of the Burmese campaign were not without controversy. He was accused of extorting evidence and inhumane treatment of Dacoit prisoners by delaying their execution in order to adjust his camera to capture better images of the scene. He was court-martialed in 1886, which resulted in a loss of honors, dismissal from the position of Provost Marshal, a temporary reduction in pay, and a forced return to India.

Hooper remained in the army and retired in 1896. He returned to England and died in 1912.

Sources: . "Willoughby Wallace Hooper." MAP Academy, December 9, 2023. https://mapacademy.io/article/willoughby-wallace-hooper/.

Hannavy, John. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography. Norway: Routledge, 2008.

This photograph album of 19 cartes-de-visite features images of Burmese, Indian and possibly other South and Southeast Asia sitters by British Indian Army officer Willoughby Wallace Hooper. Hooper served Provost Marshal of the Burma Expeditionary Force during the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885-1886. While traveling through South and Southeast Asia, he photographed the region and its people. These posed portraits capture the local life of everyday people and are largely unidentified.