[Original caption] A well is generally situated in the principal street of a Burmese village. It is surrounded by a wall and crossed by a heavy beam of wood to which pulleys are attached, through which run ropes with hooks at the ends, by means of…
Kanpur, known as Cawnpore before 1948, is one of the larger cities in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Once mainly a cantonment town, and scene of much fighting in 1857, today it is an important industrial center.
Postcards celebrated infrastructure that made a real difference to residents, in this case a water pipeline critical to the growth and population of the Punjabi hillstation of Murree in the early 20th century.
A less-typical image of an "Indian well," with a rugged sloping foreground that reminds the viewer how far beneath water could lie and the messiness of its extraction.
[Original caption] Woman Water Carrier. It is no unusual sight in India to see women performing manual labour, and in some cases they perform harder tasks than the men.
Today goatskins, pigskins and earthen pitchers have given way to plastic jars and bottles and huge, lumbering dripping water tankers that supplement inadequate piped water supplies in towns and cities throughout South Asia.
Another small masterpiece of postcard design by M.V. Dhurandhar - the canopied tree, the rope diagonal and man supporting himself with it while drawing the eye down to the title.
