Telegraph Office - Calcutta
It is hard to overestimate the importance of the telegraph, introduced in 1840 to the Raj, as this grand edifice dedicated to the new medium and constructed in the 1870s suggests.
It is hard to overestimate the importance of the telegraph, introduced in 1840 to the Raj, as this grand edifice dedicated to the new medium and constructed in the 1870s suggests.
A zenana carriage offered veiled transport for women through the city. These single cards are similar to Chinese handmade postcards and are often court-sized with undivided backs, and not often mailed abroad.
A version of this card is postmarked
The third oldest college in India, this Gothic building and campus was opened in 1868 and has since become a leading post-graduate research institute.
An early real photo postcard of a post office with signs indicating the schedule for mail coming from England. Sir Malcolm Darling wrote about the importance of this mail when he was a young I.C.S.
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,
A World War I recruiting postcard for the British-Indian Army.
[Recto, Translated from Gujarati-Bohri dialect] “You are our cause of existence. You symbolize and make us aware of our truthful rights.
A rare artist-painted postcard, likely by an amateur. Sir Malcolm Darling (1880-1969), a "maverick" I.C.S. Officer who spent over 40 years in Punjab, was a friend of E.M.
A melange of green, ink, red and yellow masterfully applied to a real photograph.
A skillfully done studio shot with real depth of field provided by the seating arrangement and sparse use of green, pink and white with a dash of glitter.
A unusual real photo postcard that is both hand colored and has glitter finely applied to the hems of the woman's dress. She is resting her arm on a magnificent pedestal that suggests a north Indian studio, possibly in Lucknow.