Images, c. 1890-1970

The photographs used in Stratton’s travel publications provide further information about the people and places depicted in the images. In Stratton’s 1955 One Man’s India, we see the winding paths of the Kinchinjanga mountains (part of the Himalayas range) and the town of Darjeeling, India with its white worship bull, Nandi. In Kolkata (formally Calcutta), we see people bathing in the Hooghly River with Dalhousie Square (now Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bagh) in view. The original prints for publication, with markings from WW Norton publishing company and alternate captions written on the backs, bring Stratton’s descriptions to life and provide a larger context to examine his experiences. From India, Arthur Stratton next traveled to the island nation of Madagascar, publishing The Great Red Island in 1964 as an exploration of his own personal experiences with the island and its people as well as a reflection of the nation’s history. Admired for its unique weaving of historical analysis and Stratton’s own “present” perspectives, the travel book includes some beautiful images of people and places on the island. Stratton’s last travel publication, Sinan, was published just three years prior to his death. The book is majorly a biography of Mimar Sinan, the chief Ottoman architect who constructed more than 300 buildings for three sultans, including the famous Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, Turkey. The largest portion of photographs in Stratton’s collection are from his times in Turkey with images of Sinan’s architectural work most prominent.