I love this picture for two reasons; it shows sarees from 1945 and it shows Calcutta from 1945.
As some of you know, I am an avid antique map collector and have one of the better private collections of antique Indian maps. Hopefully I’ll share that with you at some point.
The origin of these pictures is as follows:
The South Asia Section of the Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania recently acquired from a bookdealer a photograph album consisting of 60 photographs of Calcutta taken most likely between 1945-1946. The photographer, Mr. Claude Waddell, also provided the interesting glosses accompanying each photograph.
Indian women, dressed in the native Saree, return from prayer at Jain Temple. Little girls wear European
dress usually until the marriage age, although some mothers like to dress the little girls in Sarees.
Check out more of them at UPenn site.
Calcutta looks so beautiful in B/W and I love the way the photographer caught the women unaware. Is that the photographer’s camera bag and tripod in the background? The woman looking directly at the camera seems to be quite elaborately dressed with hair ornaments and a pretty shawl.
Love this picture. Even the buildings look nice. How nice to see such a clean street too!
And the architecture! What a beautiful photograph overall. Black and white *real* photography, not the digital stuff, is far more captivating and evocative. Sunny, feel free to put more of these images on Saree Dreams, as well as your maps.
Lovely photo-so interesting looking at all the different sari drapes, as well as the city itself. These old photos allow one to put sari styles in context.
Speaking of vintage, could you please post some photos of that vintage beauty, Maharani Gayatri Devi?
kolkata is my birthplace but unfortunately 1945 was not my time.
these days people wear saris to parties. we need an occasion to wear a sari.
please post more photos of the contemporary past.