Calcutta (1945-1946)

Some really neat pictures of Calcutta from ~ 1945-1946.

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. Several attested copies of this work has emerged including one with a ‘title page’ held by the Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. Mr. Waddell was a military photographer. Many of his captions sound like annotations that would be found in a typical military magazine. The album begins with several general long shots of Calcutta and ends with a picture of A mysterydhobi-s (washermen) washing clothes. The text accompanying the last photograph also sounds as if the author intended to finish with that picture of one of the “great mysteries of India.”