Bishop’s College, Shibpur, Calcutta, 1820

বিশপ কলেজ, শিবপুর, ১৮২০
The view shows Bishop’s College, established as part of a scheme for a theological college along the lines of that at Cambridge. It contained a chapel, houses, library and lecture rooms. The College was founded by the first Anglican Bishop of Calcutta, Bishop Thomas Middleton in December 1820 at Shibpur, on a site next to the Botanical Gardens by the side of river Hooghly. The original buildings still survive as part of the Bengal Engineering College. It was originally intended to serve as an Arts and Science College, as well as for the training of Indian Christians for the priesthood, and as catechists and teachers in Christian Colleges and Schools. Between 1832 and 1844 a number of Bengali Hindu converts joined the college, among whom were Mahesh Chandra Ghose, Krishna Mohan Banerjee and Madhusudan Dutta. With the introduction of the railway, it was felt that the college should be shifted to a suitable site in Calcutta and finally the site at Beckbagan, Lower Circular Road crossing was decided upon. See more
This coloured lithograph is taken from plate 18a of Sir Charles D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta and its environs’ painted in 1858.