Peter Barron was a 19th-century British sugar and wine merchant in Shahjahanpur who supposedly discovered Nainital on 18 November 1841, as recorded in a colonial journal. He wrote this using the pen name "Pilgrim" in a book published in the Agra Gazetteer, Notes of Wanderings in the Himalaya, and described it as being such that he had nowhere else seen its like during his travels. Barron also added several commercial and residential buildings, as well as the first English-language school in Nainital, calling it Pilgrim Lodge, which is portrayed widely in British-era postcards and images. By the mid-1840s, Nainital had developed as a commercial town along with numerous new houses, churches, and civic amenities.