Photograph Album: Third Anglo-Burmese War & Aftermath, Mandalay, 1885–c.1887

An album of approximately 39 mounted photographs and albumen prints documenting the British capture of Mandalay during the Third Anglo-Burmese War (November 1885) and the subsequent pacification campaign, apparently compiled by the son/daughter of a British officer or official present during the occupation. The collection combines the compiler’s own campaign photographs with purchased commercial views, forming a coherent visual record that spans the fall of the Konbaung dynasty, the immediate reorganisation of the captured palace, and the prolonged guerrilla resistance that followed.

Notable contents include:

• British Artillery landing at Mandalay — Army troops, artillery limbers, and mounted officers massed on the riverbank beside a twin-funnelled Irrawaddy paddle steamer, documenting the British advance up-country by river.

• Part of the Royal Palace afterward occupied as the Quarters of Col. Sladen, Political Officer — a photograph of the palace apartments assigned to Sir Edward Bosc Sladen (1827–1890), the British Political Officer who personally received King Thibaw’s surrender and escorted the royal family into exile, and who had known the king intimately since Thibaw’s youth.

• a stockpile of captured weapons, artillery and rifles. Surrendered weapons.

• Queen’s Residence, Before the Taking of Upper Burma — a pre-annexation commercial view of a palace pavilion, evidently included to form a deliberate “before” pairing with the Sladen photograph, suggesting a considered narrative structure to the album rather than a simple souvenir sequence.

• Residence of ex-Queen Mother — likely depicting the quarters of Hsinbyumashin, the formidable Queen Dowager and de facto power behind Thibaw’s throne.

The album that goes on to show images of Suez Canal, Uganda Railway and Ugandan locals.

All images are laid down onto album pages. The binding is worn away, the pages are loose, and the boards are missing.

The compiler has written a short description below most of the images.

Roughly 18 images of Burma. The following 21 images are from the same family and somewhere in Africa.

Each page is roughly 37 cm high.