"There is possibly no name connected with Simla which to thousands of Anglo-Indians, past and present, can revive more memories of a pleasant nature than that of Annandale." writes Edward Buck, the longtime resident and master chronicler of the
Postcards were an important advertising tool for hotels from the mid-1890s, when Alpine hotels in Austria, Germany and Switzerland helped to popularize the medium.
The Princely State of Chamba appeared on few postcards during the Raj even though its rulers seemed to have good relationships with a number of Punjab-based photographers, including Fred Bremner and John Burke.
Kasauli is a hillstation in Himachal Pradesh, established in 1842, less than 80 km from Simla. Murray's Handbook for India, Ceylon and Burma
The gold frame and embossing were part of changing postcard fashions.
[Original caption] View from Mashobra. Since the Government of Sir John Lawrence in 1864 Simla has been the summer capital for India.
Paharis refers to the indigenous hill people who lived around Shimla and populated a large area in the lower Himalayas.
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.
Edward Buck in Simla, Past and Present (1925) tells the story of Charles de Russet, son of a local French photographer and merchant. Charles dropped out of the nearby Bishop Cotton School at the age of seventeen.
"The professional photographers of Darjeeling generated innumerable prints depicting those whose toil supported the lifestyles of the colonialists in their homes and businesses, and who created products they loved to consumer," writes Claire Harris
Founded in 1847 by Sir Henry Lawrence, what is now the Lawrence School is a prestigious boarding school that serves much of the country's elite and the middle-class aspiring to join that elite.
