Call Number:

Ms. Codex 1793

Repository:

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

Extent:

1 volume

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Ms. Codex 1793, William Edgar Pringle Harrison photograph album, 1918-1919, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1918-1919 (inclusive)

Creator:

Harrison, William Edgar Pringle

Form:

Manuscripts, English -- 20th century, Snapshots, Photograph albums, Photographs, and Codices (bound manuscripts)

Abstract:

A photograph album kept by William Edgar Pringle Harrison who served as a Leiutenant in the India Army Reserve in Pakistan. The album provides a pictorial record of Harrison's sevice in Pakistan with photographs spanning from late-1918 to mid-1919.

Harrison was born November 11, 1892 in India. He served as a Leiutenant in the India Army Reserve in Pakistan. Harrison appears to have lived in British Columbia, Canada occupying himself as a rancher.

Written in white on the cover of this green cloth volume is "W. E. Pringle Harrison in India." The volume contains 100 black-and-white photographs of Harrison's military assignment in British India. The album provides a record of Harrison's service in Pakistan spanning less than a year from late 1918 to mid-1919. There are two photographs mounted in each page measuring approximately 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches with handwritten captions in white ink. A heading on each page indicates a town or district. Harrison was chiefly in the Pakistan districts of Jhelum and Mardān. The photographs record other soldiers, camp sites, local people, customs, landscapes, architectural sites, and animals. Sites include canals, mosques, a bazaar and other places of interest. The images also recorded Harrison's life in British India including fellow soldiers, platoons, sporting events, bungalows, and gardens. Pictures of animals include geese, cows, dogs, and captured alligators. Other photographs captured images of the Khattak Platoon, Gurkhas, and the Depot QR Guard. One page has a picture of an Afghan shell exploding dated May 1919, probably during the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Four photographs are pasted on the inside back cover.