Historic India. Ravages of White Ants. Beams Eaten Out.
An unusual "natural history" postcard from Tucks.
[Original caption] Ravages of White Ants: beams eaten out. The insect tribes of India may be said to be innumerable.
1900-1909
A Water Carrier, Madras
Today goatskins, pigskins and earthen pitchers have given way to plastic jars and bottles and huge, lumbering dripping water tankers that supplement inadequate piped water supplies in towns and cities throughout South Asia.
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.
Tomb of Tippu Sultan
Tipu Sultan, perhaps the last formidable ruler the British had to defeat before taking over South India was killed on May 4th, 1799 at the end of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.
Camel Driver [handwritten]
![Camel Driver [handwritten]](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/camel-driver_0.jpg?itok=USOI-i0C "Camel Driver [handwritten]")
A hand painted postcard from roughly 1905, many of which like printed postcards illustrated the various labor occupations.
Best Christmas Wishes 1908
A 101 years later, a look at a Christmas card from a major Calcutta retailer.
Parsee Ladies at Seaside
Dhurandhar and other J.J. School students spent so much time sketching at the beach on Marine Drive, they could hardly have failed to pick-up a sight like this. The daughter in Parsee Ladies at Seaside is even more Westernized than her mother.
Indian Hairstyle from Antiquity to the Present
A rare and exceptional early French postcard that attempts to tell the historical story of hairstyles in India, delicately held together by ivory and ornament stretching from top left to bottom right.
Smoking Hookah
A distinctly colored postcard, with the pinkish mud offsetting the green grass and white garb of the smoker. Note the little boy and half-hidden woman watching from the hut.
