Bombay - Smoking Room, The Taj Mahal Hotel
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Bombay, which opened in 1903, was very popular with visitors and on postcards.
B & W
Greetings from Darjeeling
One can only marvel at the early "Greetings from" postcard, the way five photographs are woven into one image with the help of plant motifs, in this case tree branches but often palm trees for Indian images.
Expecting
A rare image of a pregnant woman (or is she just waiting?), posing in a studio, with an abundance of real vegetation surrounding her.
An Indian Actress
A startling image of an Indian actress, carrying a bow in one hand, perhaps from the play she is acting in. But is it a she?
Native Cafe in the Camp
Jankidas, a Karachi photographer and major postcard publisher, worked largely for British troops in the cantonment area, where he had his studio and was known as "Johnny." Nonetheless, he also turns out to have been a photographer of the Independence
British India Hockey Team 10th Olympiad Los Angeles
Perhaps the best known image of the gold-medal winning Indian field hockey team at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, where they won for the second time.
Alastor Mystic
[Original back of advertising card] Alastor-Mystic-The Astrologer, Handreader and Clairvoyant from England. May be Consulted Daily at the Great Eastern Hotel, Calcutta, Room 59. (Hours 10 A.M. to 7 P.M.
Miss Chabukswari of Delhi
Usually, dancing women were unnamed, even when they become famous (for example, Gohar Jan became a "Bombay beauty"). In this case however perhaps her name or fame justified a different approach, and it was better marketing by the unknown publisher to
Greetings from Jamaica, West Indies
A postcard showing Indian workers ("east Indian coolies") brought to work in Jamaica (the "West Indies") to work, part of an enormous migration of Indian labor to British colonies around the world, many of whose descendants are still living in places
Souvenir of Darjeeling Himalaya
Thomas Paar was one of the earliest publishers of Darjeeling postcards, and a longtime photographer with a grand studio in the middle of the hillstation.
