Category: Image, English, India
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For the last decade of the nineteenth century and at least the first two decades of the twentieth, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was one of the most popular writers in the English language, in both prose and verse. He was among the last British poets to command a mass audience, appealing to readers of all social classes and ages. Although his few novels, except Kim , were only a mixed success, in the medium of the short story Kipling extended the range of English fiction in both subject matter and technique and perhaps did more than any other author in the English language to blur the division between popular and high art. Rudyard Kipling: The Books I Leave Behind , an exhibition held in 2007, was the first comprehensive show to be presented anywhere in over fifty years.
This illustrated manuscript made in southern India in 1837 consists of 72 full-color hand-painted images of men and women of the various castes and religious and ethnic groups found in Madura, India at that time. Each drawing was made on mica, a transparent, flaky mineral which splits into thin, transparent sheets. As indicated on the presentation page, the album was compiled by the Indian writing master at an English school established by American missionaries in Madura, and given to the Reverend William Twining. The manuscript shows Indian dress and jewelry adornment in the Madura region as they appeared before the onset of Western influences on South Asian dress and style.
About the Project This digital collection references the canonical works or “major moments” that have come to be regarded as important in the study of South Asian architectural traditions. Images of rites, festivals and customary practices enrich and clarify the material record and situate canonical architecture in broader understandings of landscape experience and artistic production. A sub collection of images from 89 Aiyanar temples in Tamil Nadu, South India is one special aspect of this database. It draws on Robert MacDougall’s unfinished study of a folk tradition. Another unique aspect of the database is a collection of images of domestic architecture and community life in Sri Lanka.
The Bond collection consists of photographs taken during World War II by Frank Bond while serving in the Army Air Corps, 40th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, stationed in India and Burma. The squadron was formed in 1943 and transferred by sea to India in 1944. In India, the unit was assigned first to Gushkara, approximately sixty miles west of Calcutta, and then to the Alipore Air Base in suburban Calcutta. Bond was a specialist in the development of film from aerial photography that provided essential intelligence to the Allied forces during their advance through central Burma. As the campaign in Burma progressed, Bond was transferred to Akyab Island in the Bay of Bengal where he helped to establish the field photographic developing and printing laboratory.
About AIIS American knowledge of India is shaped by the American Institute of Indian Studies , a consortium of universities and colleges in the United States at which scholars actively engage in teaching and research about India. Since 1961, the Institute has provided fellowship support for scholars and PhD candidates in America. It has offered on-site training in Indian languages through the superb facilities of its Language Centers. And it has extended knowledge of Indian culture through its two Research Centers. As a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), AIIS's online photo archive is also linked as part of CAORC's Americal Overseas Digital Library (AODL). More than 5,500 scholars have received AIIS support.
About the Collection The Hensley Collection is comprised of photographs taken during World War II by an American serviceman, Glenn S. Hensley. The photographs, numbering almost 600, were given to the University of Chicago Library by the photographer. The text accompanying the images is derived from notes written by Mr. Hensley. The images include a rich array of photographs taken in Calcutta during 1943-44 by Mr. Hensley, a professional photographer participating in the surveillance of the Japanese in Burma for the U.S. Army. During his off-duty time Mr. Hensley used his ethnographer's eye to capture daily life in a number of locations around India. The majority of the images are from Calcutta and its environs.
