A postcard showing Indian workers ("east Indian coolies") brought to work in Jamaica (the "West Indies") to work, part of an enormous migration of Indian labor to British colonies around the world, many of whose descendants are still living in…
A 101 years later, a look at a Christmas card from a major Calcutta retailer. Note the different words used to wish people in the early days of holiday-related cards - "Happy" instead of the now standard "Merry" Christmas, and "Bright" instead of…
This most interesting thing in this composite street scene is the way it brings the many forces of colonialism into view. In the distant background is Karachi's mammoth St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Most big Madras studios and retailers had branches in Ooti, among them Wiele & Klein, publisher of this very early court-sized view, possibly the earliest of the hillstation.
Hamburg-American Line was one of the largest shipping lines in the world, and brought a majority of German immigrants to the US, as and many tourists from the US to India.
A very early lithographic postcard by Gobindram Oodeyram that seems to have been printed in India. A compelling glimpse of the rural poor in the sprawling state of Rajasthan during what were trying times.
Mortimer Menpes versatility as an artist in command of color and line is manifest in a 12 card series he did for Tuck's. Menpes was one of the few signed India postcard artists to supply more than one publisher.
A postcard that celebrates the arrival of a new machine at the Kolar gold fields, 160 miles west of Madras (Chennai). The mill was already described as being powered by electricity in 1902.
Some of the most beautiful and rarest early postcards of India are hand-painted, often with penciled titles and the simply printed word "post card" on the back.
