September

The Royal Geographical Society holds a collection of two million maps, photographs, and documents and books spanning five hundred years of geographical discovery and research. The collection includes much historical material—particularly maps and photographs—from the 19th and early 20th centuries, relevant to the history of the Punjab and the Sikhs. A watercolor image of A Sikh Sentry at Fort Johnston in Malawi Africa by H. H. Johnston, c.

1891. The map from 1870 is taken from the Survey of India, and shows Amritsar, with a visible outline of the Golden Temple.

“I do not know if it is an optical illusion but I am greatly pleased with the Punjab and all its inhabitants. Perhaps you will say it is because I see them through a rain of gold; but the unsophisticated Sikhs of these parts have a simplicity and frank courtesy of manner, which a European appreciates all the more after staying or travelling about in India for two years.”

Jacquemont, Letters from India, 1829-1832