UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 34, Page 3
June 11, 1992
Architectural ornaments; Her passage to India yields book of photography

     Ornament  in Indian Architecture  by Margaret Prosser Allen is a
treasury of more than 400 photographs of sculpture, carvings,
archways, friezes, temples and other structures as seen through the
eyes and camera lens of an artist.
     Allen, associate professor emeritus of art at the University, has
been taking photographs since she was a child. She learned to develop
and print her own pictures while a student at the University of
Washington in Seattle, where she received her bachelor and master of
fine arts degrees.
     A painter and a sculptor, Allen taught art at the University of
Delaware from 1942 until retiring in 1975, and her work has been shown
in numerous exhibitions and galleries.
     Her book, recently published by the University of
Delaware/Associated University Presses, had its genesis in 1959-60.
Allen took a sabbatical from teaching art to research Indian
architecture, while accompanying her husband, Ned, a University
English professor, to India where he taught on a Fulbright fellowship.
     They went to Agra, the site of a famous fortress/palace built in
the mid-16th century, and soon settled in their home with a
cook/bearer, who shopped and prepared the meals, and a
housecleaner/gardener.
     Known locally as the "American woman who drives," Allen,
undaunted by the bullock carts, bikes, trucks, cars and pedestrians
that clogged the narrow streets, drove around in a used Morris Minor
and began photographic studies of Indian architecture, using a German
Exacta camera.
     She was something of a curiosity to people. "I would park my car
in an unobtrusive place and start sketching with no one around. In a
short time, there would be so many noses pressed against the windows
of the car to see what I was doing that I'd have to leave," she said.
     When she traveled farther afield, she used planes and trains,
staying in government guest houses. "We traveled second class on
trains because there weren't many first-class trains, and in coach,
you might have to share space with goats and chickens. I spent hours
sitting in airports and train stations, but it wasn't wasted time.
This is when I wrote my notes about what I had seen and photographed,"
she said.
     The couple came home to Newark, but Allen returned to India again
in 1967 under a Faculty Research Grant, this time taking Crawford
Greenwalt's camera that he had used to photograph hummingbirds and
later donated to the University.
     Some of the sites Allen visited on her quest were easily
accessible, but others required a hike, such as the cave temples with
their fantastic facades and carvings, which are located in the hills.
"Photography equipment is heavy," she remembers, "so sometimes, even
in these deserted areas, I'd have to hunt up a bearer to help me."
     After Allen's second visit to India, she made some large prints
of the Sanchi Stupa, an ancient Buddhist monument that dates from
about the 2nd century, B.C.
     In the spring of 1967, she took her prints to the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington.
     A receptionist said, "Leave them and someone will look at them."
Someone did look at the photographs, was excited about them and was on
the telephone, in a short time, expressing interest. The outcome was a
traveling exhibition of the more than 50 photographs of the Sanchi
Stupa, sponsored by the Smithsonian, which was shown at different
sites in the United States and Canada for the next four years.
     Because of family responsibilities, Allen retired in 1975 and was
able to work on her book only sporadically. After her husband's death
seven years ago, she returned to the project.
     One evening, Allen was at a dinner party, talking to Helen
Gouldner, then dean of the College of Arts and Science, and colleagues
from the art department.
     "Dean Gouldner was always very direct. She asked me what I was
doing. I replied that I was gardening and working on a project in the
house. She asked, 'What is your project in the house?' I told her I
was working on my book about Indian architecture. ' Finish that book,
and see about getting it published by the University of Delaware
Press,' she replied. The next thing I knew I was having lunch with Jay
Halio and representatives of the press, which agreed to print the book
four years ago. There has been a lot of work involved in getting it
ready for publication, and I'm glad the project is completed at last,"
Allen said.
                                        -Sue Swyers Moncure