Hindu Lady, Travancore

Nicolas Brothers opened a studio in Calicut [Kozhikode], a coastal city in Kerala State as early as the 1860s. The rounded top of this image suggests that it was originally an albumen photograph. The firm, which also became Nicolas & Co., thrived from 1857 until 1905, and its branches in Madras [Chennai], Calicut and Ootacamund allowed it to publish an almost unrivaled photographic record of South India during the latter half of the 19th century which fortunately included a lot of people throughout the region.