An Indian Road Scene, Putiya, Rajshahi, Bengal

An Indian Road Scene, Putiya, Rajshahi, Bengal

c. 1910
13.70x
8.70cm

Very few pre-Partition postcards exist of what was then East Bengal, and is today Bangladesh. Why exactly is unclear, given how many publishers there existed in Kolkata, but it have had to do with the lack of postcard-inclined photography studios and artists in the east, the lack of initially foreign customers (and photographers) residing there, and much of the area being off the beaten tourist track. Many of the postcards from East Bengal seem to have been by missionaries in Mymensingh and Chittagong rivers; even Dhaka postcards are scare with only two known examples by the photographer Fritz Kapp based in this city. Occasional old postcards of Kajjar and Sylhet districts can also be found.

This example from Rajshahi is another exception, although the publisher or at least photographer seems to have been in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and could have been a missionary photograph re-purposed in that city, or an image by that photographer used by an unknown publisher in the subcontinent.