File:Dying woman on a street in Calcutta in 1945.jpg

English: Original description: "The indifference of the passerby on this downtown Calcutta street to the plight of the dying woman in

the foreground is considered commonplae. During the famine of 1943, cases like this were to be seen in most every block, and though less frequent now, the hardened public reaction seems to have endured."

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. Clyde 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 dhobi-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." The annotations have been included because of their intrinsic interest not only to the photographs but to a 'typical' American impression of India at this time.