Oblong Folio album ca. 25x32,8 cm (9 ¾ x 13 in). 20 card stock leaves. With ca. 207 mounted original gelatin silver photographs from ca. 15,3x11 cm (6 x 4 ¼ in) to ca. 5,7x5,8 cm (2 ¼ x 2 ¼ in). Most photos with period white ink captions (in English) on the mounts. Period black full-leather album. Front cover slightly soiled, photos with light age-toning, but otherwise a very good album with strong, interesting photos.

Historically interesting extensive album with lively vernacular photographs taken and collected by an English traveler during his voyage from England to British India (present-day India & Pakistan) and the Far East in the mid-1930s.

As follows from the captions, the compiler was a high-ranking civil servant who traveled to the region with companions several times between 1934 and 1936. On one of these voyages, they left England aboard the SS Ranchi and journeyed to present-day India (Bhandardara, Mumbai, Daulatabad, Aurangabad, Delhi, Asra, Fatehpur Sikri, Patna, Lucknow, and Cawnpore), also visiting Pakistan (Peshawar, Landi Kotal, Lahore), Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia (Penang, Johor).

The album contains over 200 lively vernacular photos with most images documenting colonial India. Especially interesting are about twenty candid urban scenes captured across different cities, showing men in traditional dhotis and turbans pushing water bulls and a truck through water, travelers and locals posing proudly beside a catch of fish, a boy washing a bull in the shallows, and elephants being loaded with heavy cargo. One important photo from Netarhat portrays compiler’s friends likely posing with Majaraj Kumar of Chota Nagpur Udai Pratap Nath Shahdeo, the longest-reigning Indian monarch. About 100 excellent photos show early signature landmarks in Bhandardara (Bhandardara Dam), Mumbai (Gateway of India), Daulatabad (Daulatabad Fort), Aurangabad (Ellora Caves, Bibi Ka Maqbara), Delhi (the Moti Masjid Mosque, the unfinished Alai Minar, Qutb Minar, the Iron Pillar), Agra (Taj Mahal, the Jasmin tower, Agra Fort), Fatehpur Sikri (the hunting tower, baths, the elephant tower, Diwan-i-khas), Patna (government house), Lucknow (British Residency), and Cawnpore (Memorial Well). The other photos from the Indian series mostly include ethnographical & aerial views, as well as the compiler and his companions during leisure time (tent pegging, swimming, etc.).

The collection also contains about 30 well-preserved photographs of Pakistan, including nine lively vernacular photos from Peshawar. The images show a wandering ascetic draped in heavy beads and carrying a metal bowl, surrounded by a crowd of men in traditional caps and turbans. Other curious scenes portray a metalwork bazaar tiered with stacks of cooking pots, a snake charmer, and a fire eater. The Pakistani series concludes with photos from the Khyber Pass (border police maintaining order, the view of Landi Kotal, and Jamrud Fort) and Lahore (the interior courtyard of the Sheesh Mahal, the Lahore Fort, Badshahi Mosque, and Kim’s Gun).

About fifteen photos from Singapore include lively scenes of locals in a kampong transporting harvested crops in baskets and the compiler’s companions posing with geishas in what appears to be a café.

The rest of the photographs feature Sri Lanka (a boy fishing), Penang (landscapes and waterfront scenes) and Johor (the jungles) in Malaysia, as well as lively images from the SS Ranchi of the party drinking tea and enjoying leisure time on deck.

Overall, historically interesting extensive album with lively vernacular photographs taken and collected by a British traveler during his voyage from England to British India (India, Pakistan) and the Far East in the mid-1930s.