Wednesday, November 11, 2009

archives


I realised this morning while working in the studio that I'm suffering from a blog backlog. There is much to tell.

Yesterday I went to the offices of The Statesman newspaper at Chowringhee Square, which began publishing here in Calcutta on 15th January, 1875.

Wikipedia says of The Statesman: 'It opposed the shifting of India's capital from Calcutta to New Delhi in 1911 in the following terms: "The British have gone to the city of graveyards to be buried there." '

I am hoping to find some information on the death of Edward Alkin, my great-great grandfather. The staff were very helpful, and made some phone calls on my behalf to their Archives Store in Majherhat. Someone drew a map with instructions on how to get there and gave me an introduction to Nimai Ganguly who I will meet next week. I'll begin with December 1895 and January 1896.


2 comments:

  1. Keep posting on this - I'd like to know how EASY it is to get at the archives too!

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  2. Sure, Liz. I'll let you know how I get on. Apparently there is a huge newspaper archive somewhere around BBD Bagh. Not sure if its all Indian or all Calcutta/Bengali newspapers held there. Let me check. Mx

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