Sorting Jute
A moody postcard illustrating a manufacturing step in the jute export industry. Jute packaging materials were used around the world, particularly in gunny bags.
Postcard
Group of Baland Khels
[Original caption] Baland Khels. This tribe inhabits the North-West frontier of India, close to the native state of Afghanistan, the boundary between their provinces and the Indian states being the River Kurram.
Rangoon Jail - Prisoners carrying out their breakfast
D. A. Ahuja published a number of postcards of Rangoon jail, including the scene just before this one, while they are waiting for their breakfasts. According to one account of the Burmese prison system, "The annual reports on the prison
Lahore Chief Court
[Original caption] Chief Court, Lahore. This fine building is in the late Pathan style of the 14th century.
Our Clerical Staff Babu City Clerk
The babu, or educated Bengali bureaucrat, could be said to have held the Raj in the twirl of an umbrella. Babus were a new species that blossomed during colonial rule, hybrids of Western needs and Indian traditions.
Taj Mahal Hotel, Bombay
[Original caption] Taj Mahal Hotel, Bombay. Bombay, one of the most important cities in India, has an area of not less than 22 square miles.
The Jakku Temple, Simla
Edward Buck in Simla, Past and Present (1925) tells the story of Charles de Russet, son of a local French photographer and merchant. Charles dropped out of the nearby Bishop Cotton School at the age of seventeen.
Lala Lajpatrai Ji (Sher-i-Punjab)
Lala Lajpat Rai (1865–1928) Lahore by Brij Basi & Sons shows a Punjabi lawyer whose death a few weeks after an attack by a British constable on September 30, 1928 enraged a large swathe of the Indian public; he was subsequently a popular postcard
Shakuntala Patra-Lekhana
[Original caption] Shakuntala writing a love letter. Shakuntala while she was dwelling in a forest, near the river. Malini writes a letter on a lotus leaf to Deshyanta feeling doubtful if he loved her. [end]
From one of the best known paintings by
Bengal Beauty
A classic late 19th century pose, with a three-legged Victorian table, books for the woman to rest her arm on, and painted studio backdrop.
