A presentation by distinguished scholar and San Francisco based historian, Omar Khan, on his new publication Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj, a visual tour of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka through 500 vintage postcards (1892 to 1947).
About the Book
Postcards were the Instagram of their age. The world went from thousands to billions of image postcards exchanged in a handful of years; they were the beginning of the "picture-mad" age we live in today. They were the first color images of the world circulated on a mass stage, and are increasingly being seen by scholars as a unique window into the past, depicting things in contexts absent in other mediums like photography. Paper Jewels, the book and slide talk, are about how these images developed and took root in India, from the first India-themed postcards as early as 1892, through their role in the Independence struggle through 1947. It uncovers the earliest "Greetings from India" postcards in the late 1890s, such gems as the early postcards by the Indian artist M.V. Dhurandhar and The Ravi Varma Press, and some of the best artist-signed postcards of India by Western and India-based artists. We explore how Indians quickly made the medium their own, so that postcards are far more complex than merely a colonial or Orientalist tool; attention is also paid to the many technical, business, political and other factors that contributed to the 'Golden Age of Postcards' between 1895 and 1915. The book and talk are based almost entirely on primary research in archives and collections all over the world. The postcards shared are largely from the author's own collection which has taken some thirty years to amass.
A review of the Book
Paper Jewels: Tracking postcards from the Raj by Neha Bhatt, The Hindu, July 27, 2018
Speaker Bio
Omar Khan grew up in Vienna, Austria and Islamabad, Pakistan and is a graduate of Dartmouth College, Columbia and Stanford universities. He has researched early photography and ephemera of the subcontinent for thirty years and collects the early postcards featured here. He is an avid historian and award-winning web designer.
Omar Khans previous book is From Kashmir to Kabul: The Photographs of John Burke and William Baker 1860-1900 (Prestel/Gallimard/Mapin, 2002).
He has run the website Harappa.com since 1995, and is currently Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Common Sense Media. He lives in San Francisco, California.
More at: PaperJewels.org or follow us on Instagram for a new Raj postcard each day: PaperJewelsRaj
The South Asia Art Initiative, inaugurated in Spring 2018, is the culmination of a comprehensive art program, built over the past several years, that promoted conversation around the visual cultures of South Asia through talks, conferences, and exhibitions. The goal of the Initiative is to move onto the next level with local, national, and international collaborations that combine creative energies with insights drawn from scholarly research. To read more about the Initiative or to help support its various fundraising goals, please click HERE
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Event made possible with the support of the Sarah Kailath Chair of India Studies
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PARKING INFORMATION
Please note that parking is not always easily available in Berkeley. Take public transportation if possible or arrive early to secure your spot.
The event is FREE and OPEN to the public.
