Ceylon
A Singer Manufacturing Co. advertising card made in connection with the World Columbia Exhibition in 1893.
[Verso, Original caption] “There is a picturesque island in the Indian Ocean, separated from Peninsular India by the Gulf of Manaar.
People
Postman, Mysore, British India
A small advertising card for Chocolat Antoine, a chocolate firm in Brussels, Belgium, celebrating the far reach of the postal services – the uniformed deliverer, stamp and village woman watching in muted awe.
Mr. D. E. Wacha
President, 17th Congress, Calcutta 1901
Celebrating one of the many Parsee businessmen who supported the Independence struggle and founded the Indian National Congress Party.
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, Delhi
A hand-coloured postcard of Delhi by one of the earliest London-based publishers of Indian postcards.
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.
Rabindranath Tagore
A portrait of Tagore published three years after his death. In Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson's excellent biography of this great man (Bloomsbury, 1995), there appears this translation of this poignant poem:
Karma (The Worker), 1896
No sign of my
Group of Lamas
[Original caption] Group of Lamas. The Lamas are priests of the Buddhist religion.
The Auckland House School, Simla
Founded in 1866, this school was founded in 1866 and soon took over this former home of a Viceroy. It remains a premiere educational institution in India, and has grown to serving almost a thousand students from a few dozen in the early days.
The Great Hero of India
Few if any politicians were as popular as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the Maharashtrian politician and freedom fighter who spent many years in jail. He was referred to by British authorities as "the father of Indian unrest."
