![Battle scene described below captioned "Death of Colonel Finnis at Meerut"](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk0HL_WhUmPrVFaWzpL0N4CoLig1zWPqTpzNAbkx2B5dc8Vg_asoQReyb975oecqhM34YobKGDX54lPXIH-zJHS1OofJsb_i7RfU2c3w-wzbdeSeyfxz093C9iP7LNgaAQbUFz7E7mULA/s320/SKM_C30818011815010_0003.jpg)
![Scene depicting bodies hanging from a tree captioned "Outlying Picket of the Hihland Brigade"](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkBv9GUVM8s-m-DaNiBEgFAnlb17Bk-DmyP1E4NV2DHP9bAkhKWldqV_pzrpdnvW33kUxNdBNbBp6R_0YbuPTNsWDYHW4rKFZGhP4bNUBadDp3p9cMo_EeX4JlmITM7MqN6s1LDgOPqI/s320/SKM_C30818011815010_0001.jpg)
These engravings are part of Charles Ball’s British jingoistic retelling of the Sepoy Rebellion. Ball – a 19th century acclaimed British historian – wrote a seven part history detailing the Rebellion. The parts were issued separately from the maps and engravings with the intention that buyers would purchase them all and bind them into two separate volumes. His ‘histories’ of the rebellion many times depict popular rumors as fact and endeavor to render Indians as inferior and savage and British as courageous and triumphant.
The engravings, maps and books are now collector’s items, sold from relatively high-end auction houses. Our set of engravings was given by Wayne Broehl in 1994, who also donated other material related to wars particularly in Japan and India. He was a member of the Tuck School faculty and he also wrote a book called The Crisis of the Raj on the Sepoy Rebellion, which is available in Dartmouth’s libraries today.
Ball’s engravings have been used in many retellings, articles, scholarly journals, books and essays as media supplement to text about the Rebellion and this time period in India. His recounting of these events were of the first colonialist interpretations of 1857, revealing much about British attitude towards the Sepoy Rebellion and racist sentiments of the time.
To see the engravings, ask for MS-790. The shrink wrap is not a good idea from an archival standpoint, so we will be removing it!
Posted for Sophia Linkas '21
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