Calcutta

Calcutta
Presidency: Bengal
Coordinates:	22.572625°N, 88.363893°E
Altitude:	9 m (30 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Kolkata
State/Province:	West Bengal
Country:	India
Transport links
East Indian Railway (Howrah) Bengal-Nagpur Railway Calcutta and South Eastern Railway (Sealdah) Eastern Bengal Railway (Sealdah) Calcutta Port Commissioners' Railway Arrah-Sasaram Light Railway Barasat-Basirhat Light Railway Futwah-Islampur Light Railway Howrah-Amta Light Railway Howrah-Sheakhalla Light Railway

FibiWiki Maps
See our interactive map of this location showing places of interest during the British period
Calcutta

Calcutta (present day Kolkata) is a large city in north-east India. Calcutta was the headquarters of the Government of the Bengal Presidency. It was also the capital of British India until Delhi became the capital on 12th December 1911. The city had a large European mercantile community.

Spelling Variants

Modern name: Kolkata
Variants: Calcutta

Military history

Battle of Calcutta 1757
3rd Carnatic War

Location

Calcutta is now known as Kolkata in modern day India and is situated at 22°33′N, 88°20′E in the Ganges Delta.

Places of interest

Calcutta in 1862

The Maidan

The site of Fort William, the Maidan was (and still is) the centre of Calcutta. It was bounded on the west side by the Hooghly River and the Strand Road, and on the east side by Chowringhi Road. Government House, the Governor's residence, was at the north end of the Maidan and Belvedere, the residence of the Lieutenent-Governor of Bengal, was near the southern end.

Eden Gardens

The Eden Gardens were started by Lord Aukland's sisters and are beautifully laid out. They were the main gathering place of Calcutta Society in the time of the British Raj. They are also the home of India's oldest cricket ground, the Calcutta Cricket Club, and have a lake which was the home of the Calcutta Rowing Club. Beside the lake is a Burmese Pagoda brought from Prome and set up in 1856. There were many statues in the Gardens. Calcutta Eden Gardens Links to a postcard of Eden Gardens in the Fibiwiki images collection

Churches and missions

Anglican

• St James Church - see FIBIS Journal 5, "The Man Who Built St James Calcutta"
• St John's Cathedral Church - consecrated 1787
• St Paul's Cathedral - completed in 1847
• St Peter's Church, Fort William - built 1828
• St Thomas’ Church, part of the Free School , completed 1831
• 'Old' Mission Church - see article in FIBIS Journal 7, includes a list of graves
• St Stephen's, Kidderpore
• The contact details for the Church of North India in Calcutta is given in the website of the Diocese of Calcutta, CNI

• 
  Exterior View of St James Church
• 
  Pulpit at St James Church
• 
  Interior View of St James Church
• 
  Altar of St James Church
• 
  Early Vicars of St James Church
• 
  Font of St James Church

Roman Catholic Church, Dhurrumtollah Street, Calcutta

Roman Catholic

• RC Cathedral (Virgin Mary of the Rosary) - built 1797
• St Patrick's Chapel, Fort William - built 1857
• St Theresa - built 1893
• St Thomas' Church - (Middleton Row). Begun in 1841, adjacent to the Convent of Our Lady of Loreto

Other denominations

• St Andrew's Church of Scotland - opened 1818. Website for St Andrew’s Church with contact email. The website advises that the church holds the Scottish Cemetery Burial Register from its inception in 1826 and Baptism and Marriage Registers of St Andrew's Church, Kolkata and for small fee will search and provide a copy of an extract. It also holds the Baptism and Marriage Registers and some other documents for Church of Scotland cantonment Churches throughout India, Ceylon, Burma and some Gulf stations. Note however this India List post dated 28 May 2012 reports a problem obtaining a copy of a record.
• Greek Church - established 1780.
• Holy Church of Nazareth (Armenian) - built in 1724. Dr. Reuben Khachaturyan/Liz Chater have transcribed all the baptisms at this church. They can be viewed on the FIBIS database. Liz also has many photos of graves at the Nazereth Church on her website.

Missions

• Church Mission Society
• Free Church of Scotland - started in 1830
• London Missionary Society
• Oxford Mission - Church of England
• Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (Anglican)

External links

• Churches and Cathedrals of India Part V - Eastern India by 'ChurchesofIndia' on You Tube includes Calcutta

Non-Christian places of worship

As well as the temples and mosques that served the general Indian populace, Calcutta also housed:

• Parsi temple
• Synagogue
• Chinese temple

Cemeteries

See Cemeteries in Calcutta. There is also information about the crematorium.

Education

• "The Educational Establishments of Calcutta Past and Present" - article in the Calcutta Review Volume 13 (January-June 1850), page 442.
• "Reports on Colleges and Schools in India" , article in the Calcutta Review Volume 42 1866, page 57
• "Old Calcutta :It’s Schoolmasters" article in the Calcutta Review July 1913 held on website of Madge Family of Bengal.

Colleges

• Bengal School of Art
• Bishop's College, Circular Road - run by the Oxford Mission
• Calcutta Medical College - formerly Bengal Medical College, founded 1835
• Doveton College
• Presidency College

Schools

Also refer Orphans and Calcutta schools c late 1700s

• Benevolent Institution School - see these two references from 1818 and 1851
• La Martiniere School - established 1836 Wikipedia, La Martiniere For Girls, Kolkata
• St James' School - founded by Bishop Cotton in 1864
• St Lawrence High School
• St Thomas School, Kidderpore - founded 1789 as the Free School
• St. Xavier's Collegiate School - founded by the Jesuits in 1860
• The Loreto Sisters in Calcutta www.loreto.in

Economy and business

• "Calcutta" Street's Indian and Colonial Mercantile Directory for 1869, page 9. Google Books
• "Old-Time Conveyances in Calcutta" [the famous Calcutta coach building firm of Steuart & Co.] by Frank Bushby Bengal Past and Present, Volume 41, 1931, pages 138-140 Archive.org
• "A Famous Calcutta Firm: Thacker, Spink & Co." by Evan Cotton Bengal Past and Present, Volume 41, 1931, pages 157-164 Archive.org
• Articles by Christine Furedy written 1979-1981 www.yorku.ca
  • "The Early History of Morrison & Cottle (Private) Ltd., a Producer-Retail Enterprise of Calcutta" by Christine Furedy, Bengal Past and Present, Volume XCVIII, Part I, 1979 html version, Original Microsoft Word document "Pioneers in Leather Goods" by Christine Furedy in B. Sarkar (ed.), Capital Book of Nostalgia, Calcutta, Capital Press, 1980, pp.16-17. html version, Original Microsoft Word document
  • "Era of Mail-Order Shopping" "Series of Articles on the History of Retail Trade in Calcutta." Capital, Vol 183, No. 4587, December 24, 1979, pp 4-10. html version Original Microsoft Word document
  • "Retail Trade in Calcutta:Offshoot from the land of shopkeepers." Capital, Vol 183, No. 4587, December 24, 1979, pp 4-10. html version Original Microsoft Word document
  • "Development of Modern Elite Retailing in Calcutta, 1880-1920" by Christine Furedy The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. XVI, No. 4 1980, pp. 378-394. html version Original Microsoft Word document
  • "British Tradesmen of Calcutta 1830-1900: A preliminary study of their economic and political roles" by Christine Furedy in C.B. Sealy (ed.) Women Politics and Literature in Bengal east Lansing: Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University, 1981, pp. 43-62. html version Original Microsoft Word document
  • "Hall & Anderson." In B. Sarkar (ed.), Capital Book of Nostalgia, Calcutta, Capital Press, 1981, pp.17-18. html version Original Microsoft Word document
• "The Calcutta Piano Trade in the Late Eighteenth Century" by Ian Woodfield from the book Music and British Culture, 1785-1914 Essays in Honour of Cyril Ehrlich 2000. Oxford University Press.
• This India List post mentions the book, available as Preview Google Books The Richest East India Merchant: the Life and Business of John Palmer of Calcutta, 1767-1836 by Anthony Webster 2007. John Palmer ran an 'agency house', a global commercial firm involved in banking, the opium trade, shipping, plantation agriculture and trade. Available at the British Library
• Calcutta Businesses in 1933

FIBIS resources

• "Eliza Fay: New Aspects" by David Atkinson FIBIS Journal Number 24 (Autumn 2010), pages 1-11. For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals.
• "The Imhoff Inheritance" by Pippa Milnamow FIBIS Journal Number 27 (Spring 2012), pages 3-13. Includes details of Belvedere House, now the National Library.
• Images of Calcutta in Fibiwiki collection

External Links

Encyclopedia entries

• Kolkata Wikipedia
• History of Kolkata Wikipedia
• Maidan (Kolkata) Wikipedia
• Calcutta 1911 LovetoKnow
• "[Catholic] Archdiocese of Calcutta" from The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 Saintwiki.com

Maps

• Calcutta Maps 1756,1839,1847,1883 Columbia University
• Calcutta Map 1842 David Rumsey Collection
• Calcutta Map 1909 Digital South Asia Library,University of Chicago.
• Kolkata, Google Maps Map with many buildings marked

Guides and directories

See Directories online for links to many directories with information on Calcutta.

• Handbook of the Bengal Presidency. With an account of Calcutta City by Edward E Eastwick, published by John Murray 1882 Archive.org
• Thacker's Guide to Calcutta (1906) by Rev W.K. Firminger a noted historian. This book gives the historical background of Calcutta, area by area. Read online or download Archive.org
• Tourist guide and shopping list : where to go, what to see, where to shop in Calcutta and Burma 1920 Southeast Asia Visions

Images

• Search the British Library Online Gallery APAC Collection for Calcutta
• Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta The Memorial is the largest repository in India for a visual history of Calcutta
  • The Calcutta Gallery displays the history and development of Calcutta up to 1911,when the capital was moved to Delhi. The gallery also has a life size diorama of the view of the Chitpur road in the late 19th century. Chitpur was then the main business centre, presently known as the Burabazar area.
  • Views of Calcutta and its Environs A series of 28 Lithographs (click to view all) by Sir Charles D'oyly, 1781-1845, published 1848. An amateur artist of superb talent, he served in India between 1803 and 1838
  • Aquatints made by Thomas and William Daniell in the late eighteenth century, mainly views of Calcutta
• Old Indian Photos, category Kolkata
• Calcutta with images from Prof. Frances Pritchett’s webpage
• Calcutta Faces and Places in Pre-camera Days by Wilmont Corfield 1910 Archive.org
• Calcutta 1945: An American Military Photograph Album University of Pennsylvania
• Calcutta 1947 Photographs on flickr.com
• Calcutta from Great Mirror
• Writers' Building, Kolkata Photographs from Skyscrapercity.com

Other

• Calcutta 1940s Oral history site A more recent website Calcutta 1940’s, but with fewer photographs
• This India List post mentions Japanese air raids during the World War 2, at Lillooah, a EIR colony near Calcutta, and Calcutta.
• In the Skies of Calcutta : A tribute to Maurice Pring by Joydeep Sircar. Details the bombing of Calcutta in December 1942 bharat-rakshak.com
• Kolkata Sports Heritage Scribd.com
• Royal Calcutta Turf Club Indiarace.com
• Calcutta Rowing Club
• Changed street names, old and new Calcuttaweb.com, Calcutta Yellow Pages
• The Sons Of Mystery: A Masonic Miscellany From Old Calcutta by Pratap Chandra Chunder 1973
• Empire Theatre and Theatre Royal, Calcutta joydiv.org
• A trip down memory lane: Calcutta at Christmas . The Telegraph, Calcutta Sunday, 25 December 2011
• Begum Frances Johnson – Grand Dame Of Calcutta 1728-1812 muddyloafers.blogspot 15 April 2010

Historical books online

Also see Newspapers and journals online for many Calcutta publications including the Calcutta Review

• "Calcutta" Imperial Gazetteer of India, Volume 9, page 260 c 1909
• "Bengal and Fort William" A new account of the East Indies, Volume 2, page 1 by Alexander Hamilton 1744 Google Books
• The early annals of the English in Bengal, being the Bengal public consultations for the first half of the eighteenth century, summarised, extracted, and edited with introductions and illustrative addenda by Charles Robert Wilson Archive.org. Volume 1 1704-1710 1895, Volume 2 Part 1 1711-1717 1900
• The good old days of Honorable John company; being curious reminiscences illustrating manners and customs of the British in India during the rule of the East India Co. from 1600 to 1858; with brief notices of places and people of those times, &c. &c. &c. Compiled from newspapers and other publications by W. H. Carey. Archive.org. These books principally refer to Calcutta.
  • Volume 1 1906 (reprint of original published 1882), Volume 2 1907 (reprint of original published c 1882-1887), Volume 3 1887
• Calcutta in the Olden Times Two articles in the Calcutta Review available on Google Books
  • Its Localities Calcutta Review Vol 18, July-Dec 1852, p 275
  • Its People Calcutta Review Vol 35, Sept-Dec 1860, p 164
• Echoes from Old Calcutta: Being Chiefly Reminiscences of the Days of Warren Hastings, Francis and Impey by Henry Elmsley Busteed 1882 edition. The 1908 Fourth edition is much enlarged. Archive.org
• The Early History and Growth of Calcutta by Binaya Krishna Deb 1905 Archive.org
• Calcutta, Past and Present by Kathleen Blechynden 1905 Archive.org
• The Thackerays in India and some Calcutta graves by Sir William Wilson Hunter 1897 Archive.org
• The history, design, and present state of the religious, benevolent and charitable institutions, founded by the British in Calcutta and its vicinity by Charles Lushington 1824 Google Books
• Recollections of Calcutta for over half a century by Montague Massey 1918 Archive.org
• Calcutta in the 19th Century by P Thankappan Nair contains extracts by many authors and is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website. The contents is computer page 10, and the index is computer page 1028. Refer Online books-Digital Library of India for more details about this site.
• Memoirs of William Hickey, edited by Alfred Spencer, published 1913-1925. (Note however the comment that a later version, edited by Peter Quennell, London 1960 , is to be preferred to that edited by Alfred Spencer, in which some of Hickey’s racier reportage is expurgated) Volume 1 1749-1775 Index Archive.org Volume 2 1775-1782 Index Google Books. Volume 3 (1782-1790) and Volume 4 (1790-1809) may be viewed online on the Digital Library of India website.
• Calcutta in September 1800, Part 10, page 41 from Cursory Remarks, on board the ship Friendship by Mary Anne Reid, continues part 11 and part 12 Google Books. (Full details in this India List post)
• Calcutta in 1810 commences page 131 Journal of a Residence in India by Maria Graham 2nd Edition 1813 Illustrated by Engravings. Google Books
• Calcutta in 1836 commences page 7 of Book 2 Travels in South-Eastern Asia, embracing Hindustan, Malaya, Siam, and China: with notices of numerous missionary stations, and a full account of the Burman Empire; with dissertations, tables, etc by Howard Malcolm 2nd edition 1839 2 volumes in one Google Books
• "Adulterated Liquor sold to Sailors and Soldiers in the Bazars of Calcutta" and "The dangers to which Sailors and Soldiers are exposed in the Bazars of Calcutta" from On the preservation of the health of seamen, especially of those frequenting Calcutta and the other Indian ports by Norman Chevers MD, Surgeon, Bengal Army 1864 Google Books
• Catholic Institutions in Calcutta c 1881 from Indian Gods, Sages, and Cities by C Cesary Limited View Google Books 1987 page 172 reprint of original published 1881 at Calcutta by Catholic Orphan Press. Reprint available at Cambridge University Library.
• Report of the Commissioners for the Improvement of the Town of Calcutta Third Half-yearly Report 1850, Fourth Half-yearly Report 1851, Tenth Report, for the year 1853 Google Books
• Selections from the Records of the Government of Bengal: no 10: Report on the Establishment of Water-Works to Supply the City of Calcutta 1853 Archive.org
• Report on the Drainage and Conservancy of Calcutta by David Boyes Smith M.D., Sanitary Commissioner for Bengal 1869 Google Books
• Municipal Calcutta: Its Institutions in their Origins and Growth by SW Goode 1916, is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website. Table of Contents is computer page 16. Refer Online books-Digital Library of India for more details about this site
• "The City of Calcutta" from Bengal and Assam, Behar and Orissa : their history, people, commerce and industrial resources by Somerset Playne , J W Bond 1917 Archive.org.
• Bengal Past and Present-Journal of the Calcutta Historical Society

Bengal, Past and Present, Journal of the Calcutta Historical Society was first published 1907 and is a very valuable source of information. Volumes are available at the British Library. There are published indexes, each of one volume, as follows: Volumes 1 (July 1907)-8 (June 1914); Volumes 9 (1914)-18 (1919); Volumes 1 (1907)-85 (1966); Volumes 1 (1907)-104 (1985). In addition, the British Library has an index for Volumes 19-29.

Note that a different Journal, with a somewhat similar name, is the Calcutta Historical Journal, published by the University of Calcutta, first published July 1976, available at the British Library

• Volume 39, Part 1 Jan-March 1930 Archive.org
• Volume 41, Part 2, April- June 1931 pages 101-188 Archive.org
• A broken range of volumes is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website. Volume 2, part 2, commences at (actual) page 205, contents is computer page 8. Volume 25 has Volume 26 from computer page 211. Volume 44 is July-December 1932 and commences page 103, contents is computer page 7. Volume 49 has the language coded as bengali, so will not appear if the search is for english language books. Refer Online books-Digital Library of India for more details about this site.
  • Baptisms 1767 -1777 and Baptisms 1778-1782 Transcriptions from Registers of St John's, Calcutta by E W Madge as they appeared in Bengal Past and Present – this link is to website of Madge Family of Bengal. Each listing contains many pages of biographical notes (13 and 16 pages respectively). The first page of the second document lists articles in other volumes of BP&P containing transcriptions of baptisms, marriages and burials to 1800, some of which are available online on the Digital Library of India website. Other articles are available at the British Library.
    • Baptisms 1713-1758 BPP Volume XXI, pp 143-159
    • Baptisms 1769-1766 BPP Volume V, pp 325-332
    • Marriages 1713-1754 BBP Volume IX, Part II, Serial No 18, Oct-Dec 1914 pp 217-243. Available online on DLI, catalogued as vol. 9, 1918; computer pages 86-112.
    • Marriages 1759-1779 BBP Volume IV, July-Dec 1909 pp 486-512. Available online on DLI as (1909) vol. 4; computer pages 107-147
    • Marriages 1780-1785 BPP Volume VII, pp 164-171. Available online on DLI, catalogued as (1917) vol. 7 but published c 1911; computer pages 197-204
    • Marriages 1785-1792 BBP Volume XVI, Part I, Serial No 31, Jan-March 1918 pp 41-71 Available online on DLI as vol.16, pt. 1; computer pages 52-82
    • Marriages 1781-1800 (Supplementary Register) BBP Volume XXI, pp 76-141
    • Burials 1713-1755 BPP Volume X, Jan-June 1915, Serial Nos 19-20, pp 257-284 Available online on DLI as vol.10; computer pages 84-111
    • Burials 1759-1761 BBP Volume V, pp 136-142
    • Burials 1762-1774 BBP Volume VI 1910, pp 92-126 Available online on DLI, catalogued as Volume 6, no 12; computer pages 143-177
    • Burials 1775-81 BPP Volume 31 (Jan-Jun 1926) pages 130-156. Available online on DLI, catalogued as Vol.31,Part.1,Serial no.61, computer pages 149-175
    • Burials 1782-88 Volume 32 II (Oct-Dec 1926) pages 109-132. Available online on DLI, catalogued as vol.32, computer pages 132-155

• "Slavery Days in Old Calcutta" by Syud Hossain, Bengal Past and Present, Volume II, Part II 1908, pages 271-276 is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website. Catalogued as (1908) vol. 2, pt. 2; computer pages 22-27
• John Williamson Palmer was an American doctor and author who wrote c 1858 "The Chorus of the Palanquin Bearers", a description of his transit through Cossitollah Street, Calcutta. Photograph of Man in Palki (Palanquin) in Calcutta from the Smithsonian Institution. Click image to enlarge.