Naked man in the street in Calcutta in 1945

Original description:"Native madman is allowed to roam the streets naked, accosting cars, sitting down in middle of the street
or anything else that takes his fancy. How he escapes being run down or run in by the law is one of India's mysteries. "

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.