The Gymkhana, Poona
A slightly mysterious postcard of a gymkhana, a facility invented by colonial residents as a place to play sports starting the 1860s, and slowly planted across cities and cantonments across the subcontinent.
Collotype
Sawing Timber
Timber was mostly used as a building material and for making furniture. Power tools and machines are available to make life easier for carpenters today, but a century ago, specialized workmen plying their trade were a popular postcard theme.
The Charleville Hotel Mussoorie
When Rudyard Kipling visited Mussoorie in the summer 1888, he wrote two verses by hand in a book of photographs in an album of photographs by Alex Hill (now in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.), which can be found on the website of The
Raw Jute Mill, Calcutta
Jute was one of the major agricultural products during the Raj and for some period afterwards, with most of the crop grown in East Bengal, and the fiber processed in mills in and around Kolkata.
Native pottery Bazaar, Madras
A rich scene and well-preserved collotype to match, photographic in spontaneity and effect. One woman is glancing up from the pots, oblivious to another handing her one. Some men look at the camera, others walk by indifferent.
Gate where Pipe Line starts near Dungagali
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.
The pipeline track is also called the
Empress Market Camp, Karachi
[Verso] Published specially for the S.J. Co-operative Society, Karachi Sole Agent for this view throughout India
[Original caption] The Empress Market, the principal market of Karachi, is situated on the Preedy Street in Sadar Bazaar.
Ancient Temple on the Takht Hill. B.C. 200. Kashmir
Jadu Kissen’s Archaeological Photographic Works of India, Cashmere Gate, Delhi, was originally archaeological photographer to the Government of Punjab, had an office in Simla (1912), and published many archaeologically-themed postcards.
Postmarked
The Bhistie
A contemporary artist's rendering of one of the most popular postcard subjects, the all important "bhistie" who brought water in an animal skin to the thirsty.
The Bazaar, Leh
Probably one of the earliest if not the earliest postcard of Leh, capital of the former Kingdom of Ladakh. Little is known about R. E. Shorter, a photographer with offices in Sialkot, Punjab, on the route to Kashmir, and Kashmir.
