Toddy Drawers
Toddy or palm wine as made from sap collected by climbers like this one in little pouches; fermentation was so fast in the humid air that a mildly alcoholic drink could be had in a few hours.
Color
A Parsee Lady
Parsis in India originally came from Iran (Persia), and Parsi ladies were among the first Indian women to have had an active public life, no doubt helped by a high literacy rate in the community (there is a postcard or letter in the woman's hand).
Carting Tea from Factory, Ceylon
The tea industry was so important to Ceylon, that postcards illustrated each step in the process of picking, drying and transporting tea to the harbor at Colombo from where it was shipped abroad.
Water Carrier
The bhistee or water carrier was a critical support to urban life before running water became widespread and reliable, and is one of the most frequent postcard subjects.
Maina Dancing Girls. Jaipur.
This was one of Gobindram Oodeyram's most popular postcards (also called Mohamedan Dancing Girl in other versions). The hand-applied coloring is exceptional – not only the pink, the signature color of Jaipur and the firm's postcards, but also the use
Municipal Buildings Bombay
When this postcard was published in 1899, the BMC building as it has come to be known across of Victoria Terminus railway station had been open barely six years.
Burma Oil Wells, Yenongyaung
The British discovered that there was an oil industry in Burma even before they got there in 1795, with a number of wells in Yenangyaung in central Burma under the hereditary control of Burmese families.
View of Writers Building, Calcutta
The Writer's Building in Kolkata was where India was governed from the late 1700s until 1857. "Writers" were recruits who came from England to make their fortunes with the British East India Company; some became fabulously wealthy "nabobs," although
The Bombay Policeman
At the turn of the century, the uniformed policeman was a novel sight. Note the umbrella instead of gun or baton stick carried by this early policeman, drawn by M.V. Dhurandhar.
Postmarked May 14, 1903, Spencer’s Buildings.
Mumtaz-i-Mahal "The Exalted one of the Palace." (from an ivory miniature) The Taj, Tomb of Mumtaz-i-Mahal. Built by the Emperor Shah Jehan.
India Tea Growers advertising postcard. [Verso] Postmarked St. Louis, Missouri, Oct. 1, 1910 and sent to Mrs. W.M. Trane, Trowbridge, Ill. [Illinois, USA]
[Original caption, Verso] Mumtaz-I-Mahal-"the Exalted One of the Palace"-Empress of the Great
