Henry Hardy Cole was born to Sir Henry Cole, the founder of the South Kensington Museum now known as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He was appointed superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of India, North-West Provinces, and created a mission to rediscover the crumbling temples of Kashmir, Delhi, Agra and Mathura between 1868-71. The documentation was published in three volumes titled Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir (1869), The Architecture of Ancient Delhi: Especially the Building Around Kutb Minar (1872) and Illustrations of Buildings near Muttra and Agra, Showing the Mixed Hindu-Mahomedan Style of Upper India (1873). Cole’s endeavours in both photographs and hand-drawing recreating the original facades, notably Martand, Avantipur, Bhamiyar and Nowshera, became the standard measure for studying Indian architecture and archaeology and redefined the colonial understanding of Indian art and history.