This is an ethnographic photograph from the People of India album. It shows the Toda tribe of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. They were traditionally pastoralists who used shoals (Nilgiri copses) as building materials, shade and centres for ritual activities. The original People of India albums were issued in 1868. They were initially conceived as… Read more »
This photograph from the 1860 book, ‘People of India’ is captioned ‘Udasees from Sutlej.’ It carries the sign of the photo studio Shepherd & Robertson, which later became the long-running Bourne & Shepherd studio in Kolkata. Udasis are ascetics who follow the teachings of Srichand, son of Guru Nanak. These monks wear matted locks and… Read more »
The Delhi Durbar of 1903 was conceived by Lord Curzon to celebrate the succession of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark as Emperor and Empress of India. On 24 January 1901, two days after the death of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII was proclaimed the Emperor of India. King Edward, for many ruling heads of… Read more »
“Oriental Field Sports being a complete, detailed, and accurate VISUAL DESCRIPTION of the wild sports of the East and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger … and other undomesticated animal…“, as the long title suggests, is a rare book accounting detailed descriptions of the… Read more »
“Oriental Field Sports being a complete, detailed, and accurate VISUAL DESCRIPTION of the wild sports of the East and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger … and other undomesticated animal…“, as the long title suggests, is a rare book accounting detailed descriptions of the… Read more »
This map titled ‘India (northern Part)’ highlights the northern divisions of territory into presidencies and native states. The Bengal Presidency is marked in red including the lieutenant-governorships of the North-West provinces, Oudh, Punjab and Central Provinces; Bombay Presidency is marked in green, Madras in Yellow and native states in orange. After significant territorial acquisitions were… Read more »
This map by Dutch publisher Pieter van der Aa is from his book, Royaumma de Grand Mogol, published in Paris in 1729. It is based on William Baffin’s map, ‘INDOISTANI A Description of East India, conteyninge th’ Empire of The Great Mogoll,’ that was published in 1619. Baffin’s map was the first modern map of… Read more »
This image shows the Armenian Ghat by the Hooghly River. It is said to have been built in 1734 by Manvel Hazaar Maliyan, an Armenian Trade merchant. The Armenians came to Bengal in the 16th century CE, during the Mughal rule, for commercial purposes and established a settlement much before the British East India Company… Read more »
This view looks east from across the Maidan and the Chowringhee road with a clear landscape of the public buildings and private houses. Chowringhee Road was one of the Maidan’s major streets, and one of Calcutta’s broadest avenues. It was almost two miles in length and about eighty feet in width, with houses on one… Read more »
This view looks north-west from the Ochterlony Monument across the maidan towards the Government House and building along the Esplanade row. The image also captures other important buildings partly visible in the background, such as the General Post Office, the Writers’ Building, and St. John’s Church. In the 1760s, the establishing years of the East… Read more »
This photograph shows a view of the river Hooghly from Chandannagar’s riverside promenade known today as Strand Road or Strand Promenade. Estimated to have been built primarily in the 19th century, waterfront road was previously named Quai Dupleix after Joseph Francois Dupleix, who prior to serving as the French Indian Governor General, had served as… Read more »
This photograph shows a view of Chandannagar’s riverside promenade known today as Strand Road or Strand Promenade. Stretching alongside the Hooghly, the promenade is estimated to have been built primarily in the 19th century, and even today remains an iconic landmark in the city – where residents come to unwind and gaze at the river.… Read more »
Pictured here is a clock tower built in 1880 in Chandannagar’s Strand Promenade. Featuring a clock gifted by Joseph Daumain St. Pourcain in 1845, the building served as a police unit and jail, and continues to house the town’s police station to this day. The photograph is among several of 19th century Bengal captured by… Read more »
Pictured here is Chandannagar’s wide riverside promenade known as Strand Road or Strand Promenade. Stretching alongside the Hooghly, the promenade is estimated to have been built primarily in the 19th century, and even today remains an iconic landmark in the city – where residents come to unwind and gaze at the river. The photograph is… Read more »
This picture shows the north side of the vast open space, known as the Maidan, in the centre of Calcutta, bordered by Chowringhee Road. The Maidan is surrounded by the city’s main public buildings, such as the Government House, on the far left behind the Ochterlony Monument, now called the Shahid Minar. Open spaces were… Read more »
This picture shows a view of the famous vast-spreading Banyan tree at the Botanical Garden, situated on the west bank of the Hooghly river in Calcutta. The garden was established in 1787 as “Company Bagan” by Colonel Robert Kyd, a horticulture enthusiast, who worked as the secretary of the Military Board at Fort William. Botanist… Read more »
This is a decorative, mid-19th century map of Northern India drawn and engraved by J. Rapkin (vignettes by A. H. Wray & J. H. Kernot) and published in John Tallis’s Illustrated Atlas (London & New York: John Tallis & co, c.1851). The Illustrated Atlas, published from 1849 to 1853, was the last decorative world atlas.… Read more »
This map, Carte Du Bengale, is attributed to Arkstée & Merkus, but it is based on a map by French geographer Loui Brion de la Tour, who also made the Atlas Géneral, Civil et Ecclésiastique’, 1766, and ‘Atlas Général’, 1790-98. The eighteenth century was a time of conflict between the English and French in both… Read more »