Queen's Road, Bombay
An example of how writing could create something aesthetically appealing and seemingly become one with an image.
Divided back
Lucknow, Indian Mutiny, 1857
The back of this advertising card for "Price's 'Lighting Tapers,' for lighting candles, gas, &c, White or coloured, in various thicknesses, and 12 or 22 inches long," provides this caption about what is also known as the First War of Independence or
Lipton's Teas and Coffees
An early Lipton's advertising postcard; the firm used postcards very effectively to spread the new habit of tea drinking and associate it with its brand of Ceylon-grown teas.
Girls School in Jaipur
[Original German] Maedchen Schule in Jeypore [end]
This image was made by the Austrian landscape painter Josef Hoffman who toured India and Persia in the 1890s.
Dancing Girls. Jaipur.
A postcard like this was the result of a careful and perhaps exhausting pose by the dancers. Note the man holding up the backdrop, which probably covered a studio wall or other scene.
Gangavataran
[Original caption] Shankar receives the river Ganga on his head in compliance with the prayers of Bhageeratha. [end]
This image is from a famous painting by Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), one of India's most important painters.
Watson's Hotel, Bombay.
Lynne Withey writes in Grand Tours and Cooks Tours (London, 1998), about the growth of the Western tourist trade in the 1890s, that "apart from a few first-class establishments in major cities, most hotels were barely acceptable by Western standards.
Darjeeling. Kangchenjunga. No. 1
"Darjeeling is a hillstation and Sanatorium, situated on the lower slopes of the Himalayas.
A Ferry Steam Boat on the River Indus at Mari-Indus
This does not seem like a fancy Indus river steamer. It is after the heyday of the Indus steamer business that actually never really displaced the boatmen's traffic along the Indus and other river systems in Punjab, UP and Sindh.
How We Make Love in the East
There are few intimations of relations between Europeans and Indians on postcards – or other media for that matter – making this postcard a startling exception. “Stay quiet about it,” says the sweeper in Hindu-Urdu. “Sure,” replies the soldier.
