James Atkinson, doctor, journalist and artist of the Afghan Campaign, became superintendent of the Government Gazette in 1818, and of the Press from 1823. In 1833, he became surgeon to the 55th native Infantry and between 1838 and 1841 served in Kabul. The present sketches are original drawings made by Atkinson on the spot and relate to his publications Sketches in Afghanistan and The Expedition into Afghanistan. The drawings are inscribed with references to the artist’s journal, and the artist’s notes explain where in his planned publication the various illustrations should appear. Clearly Atkinson intended many more drawings to be published than in fact appeared. His sketches in fact contain 25 drawings plus the original frontispiece (the original drawing for which is in this collection); 16 of the remaining original drawings are in the India Office Library. At the time when Atkinson was travelling Afghanistan was a little-known country. Atkinson took drawing lessons from the artist George Chinnery. He probably first met Chinnery in 1805 when he was appointed assistant surgeon at Backergunge, to the south of Dhaka, soon after Chinnery was in Dhaka from 1808. His wife became a student of the artist and Atkinson himself is known to have executed a number of copies after Chinnery in addition to his own original watercolours. ‘March 16. – Marched from Bhaug to Myhesir, fifteen miles and a half. The whole prospect entirely flat, and not a tree to be seen. Though so near the mountains, the haze rendered them totally invisible, but on approaching Myhesir, some low hills peeped out right in our front of a red, rugged, and barren appearance; but in an hour the haze shut them out again. Three Belooch robbers were brought in, two of them manacled in a curious way. The arms of the third, a young man, were secured behind his back with ropes. The handcuffs consisted of a log of wood, about two feet long by three inches wide; there was a square hole in the middle of it, which the hands are first put through, and then a wooden pin is driven through the centre part of the hole, between the wrists, which effectually prevents either hand being withdrawn. I made a sketch of the three prisoners as they stood before me. The name of the eldest was Dost Mahomed Khan, which he pronounced with a smile of complacency, as much as to say, “I too am a Dost Mahomed Khan.”’(1) 1. J. Atkinson, The Expedition into Afghanistan, pages 107-8
J. Atkinson, Sketches in Afghaunistan, lithographed by Louis and Charles Haghe, published by Henry Graves & Company, London 1842 J. Atkinson, The Expedition into Afghanistan, Notes and Sketches descriptive of the country contained in a personal narrative during the Campaign of 1839 and 1840, up to the surrender of Dost Mahomed Khan, The Naval Military Press, 2006