The Alkazi Collection is the finest private collection of early photography from the Indian subcontinent. With over 85,000 images, it includes material from most of the great photographers and starting in the 1850s. The collection is the passion of a single India-based collector, Ebrahim Alkazi,

who has gone to great lengths to make the photographs available to researchers.

The Alkazi Collection is housed in a new facility in New Delhi, and is linked to a Foundation that is sponsoring a series of major volumes exploring major strands of early Indian photography, including Lucknow: City of Illusion (2006) and Vijayanagara: Splendour in Ruins (2008). More such exquisitely printed volumes by leading scholars are forthcoming. The Foundation also sponsors exhibitions and conferences around the world.

Unfortunately, little of the collection can currently be accessed over the web, but there are well-appointed research facilities in London and New York from where digital images of the entire collection are available.

The image above by Samuel Bourne is titled From Ragi to Kalpa (1863).

• India