Opgezette kop van een sambar before 1880

This photograph of a Sambar deer head was made by Nicholas & Co, a studio operating in colonial India. It is an example of taxidermy displayed within the pages of a hunting diary. In British India, hunting was not merely a sport, it was a display of power and control. The Sambar, native to the Indian subcontinent, became a trophy, a symbol of colonial dominance over the natural world. This image, reproduced in a book, further disseminates this ideology. The foliage decorating the display adds a dimension of naturalism to the artifice of the taxidermied head, perhaps intended to elevate the hunter to the status of a naturalist. As historians, we delve into archives, colonial records, and even hunting diaries like this one to understand the social, economic, and political contexts that shaped artistic production and the complex relationship between colonizer and the colonized. Only then can we start to truly understand how the image creates meaning through visual codes, cultural references, and historical associations.