TRIPE, Linnaeus

b. 14 April 1822; d. 2 March 1902

In 1855 Captain Linnaeus Tripe, serving in the Madras Native Infantry, became official photographer to Burma. The following year he became government photographer to the Madras Presidency, and travelled round India compiling a large collection of calotype photographs of sculptures, forts and temples, including a number of stereoscopic photographs. What is particularly remarkable is that so soon after the invention of photography, an official photographer was being appointed in the Services.

Tripe's pictures are all calotypes, so are contact prints, and since these pictures measure 15" by 12" it shows just how bulky the equipment would have been in those days.

Tripe also made a number of stereoscopic pictures, which were subsequently published.

If Linnaeus' name seems unusual, spare a thought for his brothers and sisters, whose names included Cornelia, Theophilus, Cornelius, Octavius, Algernon, Septimus and Lorenzo!