Feb 22, 2009
Feb 21, 2009
People of Darjeeling - 1870s
General view of Darjeeling, showing the Snowy Range, 40 miles distant, as seen from St Paul's School - 1870s
Photograph of Darjeeling, from an Album of Miscellaneous views in India, taken by John H.Doyle in the 1870s. Darjeeling was part of the territory of the Rajas of Sikkim till the 18th century and was given to the British in 1835. The British built a sanatorium here and it soon became the summer headquarters of the Bengal government. This is a general view overlooking the town, looking north towards Sikkim and the Himalayas, with the peak of Kanchenjunga visible in the far distance.
Kanchenjunga in the Himalayan range is the third highest peak in the world.
Feb 19, 2009
A private teacher in one of the indigenous schools in Varanasi (Benares) - 1870
Dasasumedhaghat, Varanasi [Benares] - 1883
Palace of the Maharajah Chat Singh, Ramnagar, Benares (Varanasi) - 1880
Feb 15, 2009
Feb 7, 2009
Ancient Hindoo Temple, Chitor - 1870s
Feb 6, 2009
Eden Gardens, Calcutta - 1875
View of a cricket match in progress on the sports ground at Naini Tal - 1885
Feb 3, 2009
Reeta Roy - Miss International Air Hostess 1964
Photographed in 1964
Feb 1, 2009
Dhobie (washerman) Ironing - 1870
These photographs represent a common theme of traveller’s memoirs and diaries during the period of Colonial expansion in the latter half of the 19th century. As Europeans came into contact with other peoples there was an urge to document different races, customs, costumes and occupations. The diverse racial and cultural composition of the subcontinent became a photographic genre in its own right, due to both the rising science of ‘ethnology’ and to serve the demand for ‘exotic’ souvenirs of the east.
Hill coolies with dandy & Kilta - 1863
Carte-de-visite portrait of porters, one of a series of prints of ethnic types and occupations taken by Samuel Bourne in 1863. A coolie was a hired labourer or burden-carrier. The term dandy was applied to a kind of vehicle used in the Himalayas consisting of a strong cloth slung like a hammock and attached to a bamboo staff carried by two or more men. The traveller would either sit sideways or lie on his back. A kilta is a wicker basket carried on the back, such as the one shown here in between the porters.