The April 4, 1905 earthquake, one of the largest in India history, killed over 20,000 people. This undivided back postcard would have been one of the first times the postcard was being put to the reporting of current events use in British India.
Addressed to Miss Alice Grimes, Elysee Palace Hotel, Paris, France and postmarked Nov. 3, 1903 Mashobra Cant.:
"My dear Miss Grimes. I'm having a really good time. Have just come down from the gay regi day [regimental day?] Simla.
Were Indians allowed on the Mall in Shimla?
Almost invisible in this painted scene are the two men near the center, half-hidden markers of scale, secret rewards for the perceptive postcard viewer.
A painted postcard of Simla, published by the local branch of one of the Raj's major retailers based in Kolkata.
Bourne & Shepherd are said to have begun their photographic activities in 1840, a year after the invention of photography (see Macmillan, Seaports of India and Ceylon, 1928, p.
One of Fred Bremner's favorite images, also found in his autobiography. Wandering through Kashmir he wrote ". . . the eye may sometimes rest on a figure slowly gliding through mid-air with no apparent support whatever.
Kolkata-based Bourne & Shepherd was one of the oldest photographic studios in India, and certainly one of the most famous, having built its reputation on the albumen photography of Samuel Bourne during the 1860s.
