Murray's view of the principal street in Agra manages to convey the heat of the day and the local activity through the deep shadow and the blurred pedestrians, whose passage reads like dust accumulated during the long exposure. With ground-floor shops shaded from the sun and second-story loggias open to the air, the buildings-each different in size, scale, and decoration-shoulder each other and jostle for space like so many individuals in the stream of people shimmering below.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Inscription: Inscribed in negative, BR: [illegible]; inscribed in pencil, on mount, recto BR: "PRINCIPAL STREET AT AGRA"
By descent to John Somerset Murray [Valerie Lloyd, as agent]; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, April 5, 1982
Murray's printed text for this image (affixed to print in Royal Archives, Windsor) reads: "XIII.--THE CHOWK. This view shows the principal street, or chowk, of the city of Agra. It is about a mile in length, broad, and well paved, and generally crowded with people on business or pleasure; it leads from the direction of the civil lines, in which are the offices of Government, the courts of justice, &c. to the Fort and Great Mosque. The shops are shaded from the sun by sloping screens of grass matting, which project into the street, affording needful shelter to both buyers and sellers."
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," May 25–July 4, 1993.
Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," August 7–October 2, 1993.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," June 19–September 11, 1994.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860," September 24–December 30, 2007.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860," February 3–May 4, 2008.
Musée d'Orsay. "Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860," May 26–September 7, 2008.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selections from the Permanent Collection - Johnson Rotation 75," April 10–September 18, 2018.
Hambourg, Maria Morris, Pierre Apraxine, Malcolm Daniel, Virginia Heckert, and Jeff L. Rosenheim. The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 81.
John Murray (British, Blackhouse, Aberdeenshire, Scotland 1809–1898 Sheringham, Norfolk county, England)
ca. 1855
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's Department of Photographs houses a collection of more than 75,000 works spanning the history of photography from its invention in the 1830s to the present.