Hill Milk Women
This postcard is likely based on a portrait by Johnston & Hoffmann of 22 Chowringhee [also Chourangi] Road, Kolkata, one of the most storied photographic firms in British India.
Women
A Group of 3 Bhootia Women
Bhutias are a Sikkimese people of Tibetan ancestry, photographed here most likely in Johnston & Hoffman's Darjeeling studio – compare to A Group of 3 Nepaulese which seems to have the same backdrop.
A Group of 3 Nepaulese
This rare photograph of Nepalis was likely taken in the hillstation of Darjeeling in a studio.
Street Scene, Madras
Note the diagonal leading the eye into a rich scene, the figures in the corners of the frame, the tethered cow on the left, the pots in the coals, the vibrancy of this human space under a hoisted banner.
Morning exercise
An early view of golf being played in British India, with both a man and woman playing.
Cocoa Palmleaf Plaiters, Malabar
Early postcards from the Malabar coast seem to be relatively rare. In the message below, "Dusk" seems to be a dog.
[Verso] "6-5-20. Aren't they smartly pretty? I expect Dusk would like to bite this calf don't you?
Kandyan Lady, Ceylon
A lavishly illustrated studio postcard; note how the presumably dancer is displaying her ghungroos on her ankles.
Compare to the black and white collotype of the same photograph.
Kandyan lady
Compare to the halftone color version of the same photograph.
Long Live the Revolution! Shrimati Sarojini Naidu
An advertising postcard celebrating the Independence struggle and the poet Sarojini Naidu, who the Turkish poet Halide Edib, then on a visit to India, described in her book Inside India (1938, p. 44):
"Sarojini is a poet.
Nautch Girl Lying, Jaipur
The great Hindi/Urdu writer Munshi Premchand describes, from the point-of-view of Suman, the heroine of his first novel Sevasadan, the complex view she has of Bholi, a courtesan living across the street from her:
"Suman had never met any courtesans,
