Meconopsis on Nyima La

Glass slide, taken by either Lord 'Jack' Cawdor or Frank Kingdon Ward. Numbered: 65 (green circular sticker). Title on slide: Mecopsis on Nyima La. Image features: Horizontal view of hillside with several poppy plants in flower. Label: James A Sinclair & Co Ltd, Lantern Slide Makers, London. Copy negative, contact sheet and low contrast 'postcard' print made (2004). The image can also be seen as a print in a collection of photographs from Lord Cawdor (RSAA/SC/CAW/3).

For background, see Bailey, No Passport to Tibet (1957), pp. 113-14, where Bailey notes a diary entry for July 10th, 1913, in which he records "blue poppies I had not seen before." He continues: "Though it was the first time I had seen the blue poppy which has become the Meconopsis Baileyi, I had previously seen many different blue poppies in Tibet, and many of them beautiful, though not so beautiful as these ... It was not until 1924 that the plant-hunter Captain Kingdon Ward, who had read of my discovery of the blue poppy, brought back the seed of the flower...."

Access is restricted to the copy print.