American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Obl. 10 x 13 in. 54 photographs (of 60, lacking 1, 5, 6, 9, 11, 18). Binder, cloth-covered boards, aluminum screws at spine.

Waddell chose the photos to show both the “squalor and luxury” of Calcutta (Kolkata), a city in a land of extremes. Waddell was Chief Photographer for the Houston Press. When he entered the army, he went directly to Mountbatten’’s headquarters in Ceylon, to the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. He served as Mountbatten’s personal photographer, as part of the Public Relations Staff of the Southeast Asia Command.  In February 1945, he left that post and relocated to Calcutta. When he finally got leave (two years into his service), he spent it wandering the city taking photographs. After returning home, at the behest of friends, he assembled this volume of images providing a portrait of Calcutta as he found it. Many images show US servicemen in the city, some give advice to those men, especially what to avoid (such as street food, fixed under uncertain conditions). He has photos of an opium den, prostitutes, street performers (including snake charmers), salesmen and shopkeepers, temples, funeral pyres, and people dying in the streets. The entire range of life in this city of millions.