Muslim girl showing method of wearing ear and nose rings, and anklets, 1870

A full-length standing studio portrait of a Muslim girl from Karachi in Sindh, Pakistan, taken by Michie and Company in c. 1870, from the Archaeological Survey of India Collections. This is one of a series of photographs commissioned by the Government of India in the 19th century, in order to gather information about the dress, customs, trade and religions of the different racial groups on the subcontinent. Images like this one were exhibited at European international exhibitions during the nineteenth century. The girl in the photograph demonstrates the method of wearing ear and nose rings, and anklets. This collection of around 35,000 photographs, produced between 1855 and 1922, forms a major resource both for the study of Indian architecture and archaeology, and for the early practice of archaeological photography in the subcontinent. Source: ‘The World through the Lens’.