Photography arrived in the harbour city of Mumbai (erstwhile Bombay) as early as 1840, via trade, as well as through European explorers and government officials. With the establishment of India's first Photographic Society in the city in 1854, the medium was used for documentation and later, even taught as an art form. Between the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, Mumbai became one of the largest centres of photography's patronage and dissemination in India, underscored by practitioners like Dr. Narayan Daji (c, 1828-1875), a medical doctor and brother to the acclaimed Indologist, Dr. Bhau Daji.