Cotton Cart
Cotton was the product that helped put 19th century Mumbai on the road to becoming one of the world's major cities. The product was celebrated on postcards like this virtual painting.
Bombay Mumbai
A Cobbler
Itinerant workers, cobblers can repair all sorts of things. Note the sophisticated lithographic printing of this image, which some early Clifton & Co.
Juggler with goat and monkey
An Dhurandhar portrait of a familiar sight on Bombay streets, the multi-tasking juggler. Note once again the soft city backdrop.
Colaba Causeway, Bombay.
The Colaba Causeway, now known as Bhagat Singh Road, was opened in 1838 and connected Colaba and what was known as Old Woman's Island with the mainland of Bombay.
Bombay Beauties
This postcard actually shows a young Gohar Jan (right) and her mother Malka Jan, both famous dancers and singers. Gohar Jan was the first recorded Indian artist, by the Gramophone company in 1904. She can be heard on YouTube.
This image was used
Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, President, 2nd Congress, Calcutta 1886 and 9th Congress, Lahore, 1893
Also known as the "Grand Old Man of India", Dadabhai Naoroji is one of the men who laid the intellectual foundations of the Indian freedom struggle towards the end of the 19th century.
An Ideal Cycling Costume
The bicycle was something quite new in Bombay at the turn of the century, and often featured on postcards, frequently with women as drivers.
Greetings from Bombay
From an early "Greetings from" series by D.M. Macropolo & Co., a renowned Raj tobacconist with retail stores in Kolkata and Mumbai.
Elphinstone Bombay
Among the earliest postcards of Bombay from a photograph. One can see the title and photographer inscribed at the bottom of the original glass negative, and the hand-tinting is done in large blocks.
A Knife Grinder
Knife grinders are a vanishing craft. Doing this at home before electric knife sharpeners was difficult. Knife grinders would take their sharpening wheels from door to door and take care of the problem.
An earlier postcard view, before divided backs
