A Burmese man, 1885 (c)

Photograph, 3rd Burma War (1885-1887), 1885 (c).

British military and colonial administrators were keen to learn about the new peoples and societies that they came into contact with. The need to photograph different ethnic groups fits into the wider pattern of the Victorian spirit of scientific endeavour, which encompassed a desire to understand and control the world through systematically exploring, recording and classifying it contents.

From a photograph album compiled by Major (later Major General Sir) Alexander Robert Badock.