Ca. 1930-1934. All items are housed in a period green card box ca. 29x39,5x4 cm (11 ¼ x 15 ½ x 1 ½ in), with a paper label of “Walker’s Expert Loose Leaf Photo Album” on one of the sides. The box is slightly stained, rubbed and with paper cracks on the folds, but overall very good.
Album: Oblong Folio ca. 27,5x37,5 cm (10 ¾ x 4 ¾ in). 50 card stock leaves (2 blank). With 88 mounted gelatin silver photos, including two double-page panoramas ca. 16x40 cm (6 ½ x 15 ¾ in) and slightly smaller, and seventeen panoramas from ca. 12x27,5 cm (4 ¾ x 10 ¾ in) to ca. 8,5x26,5 cm (3 ½ x 10 ½ in). The rest of the photos are ca. 15x20,5 cm (6x8 in) or slightly smaller. All but two photos are with paper labels mounted on the leaves or the images, with typewritten captions and numbers; many are also with dates. Two photos are with manuscript ink captions on the mounts; one of the double-page panoramas is with a manuscript pencil caption and date on the verso. Four photos are tinted in colour. Period full cloth “Walker’s Expert Photo Album” with a blue spine and light-brown boards; manufacturer’s gilt-tooled and blind-tooled stamps on the recto and verso of the front board. Two leaves and the first cover leaf fully or partly detached from the stub and loosely inserted, several mounts slightly waved, one of the double-page panoramas with a crease, a few photos mildly faded or with mild silvering, but overall a very good album of strong interesting photos. With ca. 60 loose photos (including several duplicates). Three large images are ca. 28x37,5 cm (11 x 14 ¾ in); the rest of the photos are from ca. 15x20,5 cm (6x8 in) to ca. 6x10,5 cm (2 ¼ x 4 in). Several photos with period pencil or ink captions or dates on verso. One group portrait is supplemented with a piece of tracing paper with typewritten text, identifying the people and humorously describing their facial expressions. With two original envelopes ca. 15,5x22,5 cm (6x9 in) and ca. 9x14,5 cm (3 ½ x 5 ¾ in), both are addressed to “Mrs. Vincent [or E.] Hart” and dated 1932 and 1934. One large photo with multiple creases, several images slightly faded, otherwise very good loose photos.
With two loose real photo postcards, both ca. 9x14 cm (3 ½ x 5 ½ in). Both are addressed, dated 1932 and 1933, signed and with postal stamps on verso.

Extensive historically significant archive of original photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, &c., documenting the construction of the Mettur Dam in the modern-day Tamil Nadu state of India. The dam was built by the Public Works Department of the Madras Presidency in 1927-1934 and, at the time of its completion, was considered the “biggest solid gravity dam in the world, and the biggest dam in the British Empire” (An Irish Engineer puts Harness on a River, One of India’s Biggest Projects// Cork Evening Echo, 18 September 1934, p. 3). Today it remains the largest dam in Tamil Nadu, providing irrigation and drinking water for more than twelve districts of the state.
The archive was assembled by the engineer-in-chief of the Mettur project, Vincent Hart. “Educated at Presentation Brothers’ College, Cork, he graduated from Cooper’s Hill College of Engineering, London (since closed). He was first posted to Madras in 1903, and since then has been on the principal works in different parts of the Presidency” (from one of the newspaper clippings in the collection). Hart was in charge of the engineering works at the Mettur Dam from 1930 – July 1933. In recognition of his work, he was presented with the Companionship of the Star of India by King George V (Dictionary of Irish Architects, 1720-1940; https://www.dia.ie/architects/view/2426/HART-VINCENT).
The album contains 88 photos documenting the dam construction during Hart’s tenure – from October 1930 – July 1933. The images show different stages and areas of work: auxiliary Black and Red Towers, “masonry and excavation,” “construction sluice area,” “Ellis Saddle surplus bridge,” “Deep Hole,” “Masonry near Mulshi Tower,” “Low Level Sluices,” “Work in the Central Coffer Dam,” “Freshes in the river,” “Governor’s visit, H.E. walking down to the L.O.X. factory,” “Damage to the Red Tower chutes,” “Central Coffer Dam (floods),” “Ellis Saddle opening,” “Full view of Dam,” “Dam & Reservoir before overflow,” “Dam & Reservoir with overflow from East – July 1933,” &c. The loose photos include additional views of the dam during and after construction (several with native workers), as well as images of the concrete plaque with the statistics of the completed dam, group portraits of the project engineers and managers (featuring Hart), &c. One of the portraits shows a group of British and native workers posing in front of the “Shutter House” with the date “1933” on the façade. Another photo of eleven construction managers (Hart in the centre) is supplemented with a typewritten list of their names and the humorous characteristics of their facial expressions. Two real photo postcards, written by Hart to his daughter Alicia, show the dam under construction. Hart’s notes provide a short commentary on the images: “This is a photo of the Dam, showing 300 feet of it completed. I hope you will like it;” “How do you like the photo of one of my towers which mixes cement concrete & lays it in the dam? It is 306 feet high.”
The photographs are accompanied with:
1) Rare government booklet: Statement read by M.R.Ry. Rao Bahadur R. Narasimha Ayyangar Avl., B.A., B.E. Chief Engineer for Irrigation, On the inauguration of the Cauvery Mettur Irrigation System by His Excellency Lt.-Col. The Right Honourable Sir George Frederick Stanley, P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., C.M.G., Governor of Madras, 21st August 1934. Madras: Government Press, 1934. 5 pp. Original blue publisher’s wrappers.
2) Two original letters, written after Hart was presented with the Companionship of the Star of India:
a) To Vincent Hart from the Secretary of the Institution of Civil Engineers, dated 1 January 1935, with the original envelope;
b) To Mrs. Evelyn Hart from the Chier Reporter of the “Irish Times,” dated 9 January 1935, with the original envelope containing three gelatin silver photos and two negatives, all ca. 8,5x13,5 cm (3 ¼ x 5 ¼ in).
3) Over a dozen clippings from Indian and Irish newspapers (“The Madras Mail,” “Cork Evening Echo,” and others, ca. 1932-1934) providing details of the dam’s construction, Hart’s biography, other engineering works in the Madras Presidency, &c.
Overall an important extensive primary source on the history of river dam construction in British India in the interwar period.

Item #599

Price: $4,500.00 USD

Status: On Hold