1857 Memorial Museum

The 1857 Memorial Museum occupies a building inside the Residency complex in Lucknow, whose walls still show damage from the siege of 1857. It is devoted to the uprising of that year, often called the First War of Independence, and its displays run in date order through eleven galleries.

The opening rooms show the Residency before and after the siege through lithographs of the time, the work of C.H. Mecham and of G.F. Atkinson. A British gallery holds high-relief memorials to Sir Henry Lawrence and Miss Susanna Palmer, and other cases contain weapons, musical instruments and cannon balls from the fighting. Dioramas and translites recreate the battles at Alambagh and Sikanderbagh. Newer sections include a sound installation and a Colonial India Gallery, where photographs trace the freedom movement from 1905 to 1947.