Banyan Tree, Madras
A postcard which represents something of the uneasy relationships during the colonial period. The ancient banyan tree is hemmed in by fencing and benches. Two bearded British men are enjoying a drink under its shade.
People
Brahmins Dining. Jaipur.
A carefully staged scene in which the cloth backdrop helps focus us on the individuality of the men.
Gustav Hagenbeck's Biggest Indian People Exhibition in the World
In the book Carl Hagenbeck's Empire of Entertainments by Eric Ames (2008) he describes the importance of this exotic showman and his family who helped turn "India" into a touring spectacle following an 1898 exhibition in Berlin, even if most of the
Calcutta. Juggernath Bathing Ghat
This ghat was one of the most common photographic and postcard images, and renamed in 2012 as Chotulal's Ghat. It apparently dates back to the 18th century.
Water Bullock
Bullocks that ferried water were called "water bullocks." This colored image by Clifton & Company, one of the earliest mass publishers of postcards in Mumbai (Bombay) was fairly popular, perhaps because of its rich colors.
J. & G. Hagenbeck's Indian Exhibition
In Ali Raza's excellent book Revolutionary Pasts Communist Internationalism in Colonial India (Tulika Books, 2022) there is this note from a police report in 1926: "A public meeting was held . . . under the auspices of the Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha to
Bullock Carriage [handwritten]
![Bullock Carriage [handwritten]](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/bullock-carriage_0.jpg?itok=YmBRS3jf "Bullock Carriage [handwritten]")
A zenana carriage offered veiled transport for women through the city. These single cards are similar to Chinese handmade postcards and are often court-sized with undivided backs, and not often mailed abroad.
A version of this card is postmarked
Manak Chowk, Jaipur
Gobindram Oodepyram produced a number of hand-tinted, two colour, postcards like this one where the pink, for example, is strategically deployed to lead the eye down the broad avenue.
Cooly Woman, Darjeeling.
Although taken in the firm's studio, with the woman posing upright, one can from this portrait and the wooden beam infer the literally backbreaking work hillstation workers endured.
Kazi, Mahomedan Preacher
A lithographic portrait, which by this time had become a lesser used printing process for postcards.
