Tibetan Mendicant
An uncommon type of postcard flourished in Darjeeling, with individuals on real-photo black and white postcards carefully silhouetted and then individually hand-painted.
Darjeeling
Mt. Everest, Greetings from Darjeeling
A very early postcard of Mt. Everest, probably printed in 1901 or earlier, by Darjeeling's premiere studio, run by the Austrian Thomas Paar.
Mt. Everest, Greetings from Darjeeling
A very early postcard of Mt. Everest, possibly the earliest.
Sent to Jerome Steinback, 341–11th St., Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. and postmarked Feb. 14, 1902 in Darjeeling. [Recto] "2/13/02 Our greetings to you from the most beautiful spot in India –
Greetings from Darjeeling
One can only marvel at the early "Greetings from" postcard, the way five photographs are woven into one image with the help of plant motifs, in this case tree branches but often palm trees for Indian images.
Souvenir of Darjeeling Himalaya
Thomas Paar was one of the earliest publishers of Darjeeling postcards, and a longtime photographer with a grand studio in the middle of the hillstation.
A Dandy
"I was carried to and from the hall in a primitive conveyance, called a “dandy”; it consists of a bit of canvas, fastened stoutly to an oblong frame of wood, terminating in a short pole at either end," writes Margaretta Catherine Reynolds, author of
Greetings from Darjeeling Himalaya
An early "Greetings from" postcard of Darjeeling by its premiere early photographer Thomas Paar. Clare Harris in her excellent book Photography and Tibet (Reaktion, 2016) "deconstructs" the figure on the left, whom she correctly calls a 'poster boy'
Road Rolling
Labor-intensive road rolling helped to create smoother and less permeable roads. The early history of road rolling in Europe can be traced to the 18th century when roads became militarily important.
