Pan & Aerated Water Shop, Calcutta
A postcard that reflects how easily Kolkata mixed past and present at the turn of the century. Paan is an ancient cornucopia of spices and nuts wrapped in a betel leaf. Next to it are cooling soda bottles.
Divided back
Coolie Women
A rather unusual portrait of "coolie" women. While popular postcard subjects, often shown with their baskets, this studio portrait features one woman with her back to the viewer, and another looking straight into her (invisible) eyes.
Post Office, Cherat
Illustrated postcards often celebrated the post offices that made their rapid spread possible.
Calcutta - Shibjee Fair
An unusually lively postcard with what seem to be wooden full circle swings or spinners common at amusement fairs. What exactly the Shibjee Fare [Fair] was is unclear.
A Popular Stall: Northern India
[Original Caption] A Popular Stall, Northern India. Eatables of all kinds, especially sweetmeat delicacies, are prominently displayed in all Indian bazaars.
Calcutta - Grand Hotel - Chowringhee
"Vast indeed have been the changes that have occurred in Calcutta during the past few decades," writes Allister Macmillan in Seaports of India and Ceylon, "but none has been more remarkable than that represented by the Grand Hotel, which occupies an
The Hooseinabad, Lucknow.
Chota Imambara, a Lucknow landmark, is also called the Husseinabad Imambara, and was built as the mausoleum for Muhammad Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh. It was completed in 1838 and is part of the Kaiser Bagh complex.
Exterior of Zenana, Agra.
[Original caption] Exterior of Zenana, Agra. Here white marble pavilions look out on delicate inlaid pillars and finely perforated screen's thence across the Jumna.
Springtime on Jakko, Simla
Almost invisible in this painted scene are the two men near the center, half-hidden markers of scale, secret rewards for the perceptive postcard viewer.
Lady Gymkhana, Karachi
According to Hobson-Jobson, the word gymkhana "is quite modern, and was unknown 40 years ago. The first use that we can trace is (on the authority of Major John Trotter) at Rūrkī in 1861, when a gymkhana was instituted there.
