1. "At the End of the Passage," Kipling ~ Gallery Exhibit

The Punkah was a ceiling fan which had to be pulled and released repeatedly to work. It was almost always controlled by servants while the wealthy enjoyed their downtime indoors away from the extreme heat. In Kipling's narrative, the protagonists often sit together under a moving Punkah while demanding their servants keep pulling. You can see one pictured here---yellow and brown against the stark white ceiling. 

Wikimedia Commons Contributors. File:Dining Room Punkah 1880.jpg. Image. Wikimedia Commons, 23 October 2020,…

The four protagonists of this narrative are overseeing the construction of the British Raj's new railroad. They are serving the empire in their own individual roles, but their experience is collective. The extreme heat and dry, dusty environment cause them misery everyday. This image shows a railroad in west India and serves as an example of what the landscape would have been similar to.

Wikimedia Commons Contributors. File:KITLV 92185 - Unknown - Railway lines at Karli in India - Around 1870.tif. Wikimedia Commons, Around 1870,…

One of Kipling's protagonists, Spurstow, is a doctor in the British Raj. His role in serving the empire requires him to the tend to the sick and injured locals working from them in India, most of whom are sickw ith cholera. Cholera was an epidemic not only within the narrative, but in most colonized states at this time. The lack of clean resources and proper sanitization made the local indigenous populations primarily susceptible. Pictured here is a lithograph that reveals the racial biases the Empire held about this disease.

Faherty, Anna, editor. “John Bull catching the…

Pictured here is a Dak Bungalow in west India. This is an idea of what Hummil's bungalow could have resembled. Hummil, being the engineer for the new railroad, was given lodging especially close to the locals who work for him---much closer than any of his peers lived. This proximity created an interesting dynamic between him and the local indigenous knowledge which he avoided. His bungalow would have been in a much drier, more arid, and much flatter landscape.

Bourne, Samuel. Bungalow of Narkanda Village of Shimla District in Indian State of Himachal Pradesh in 1868. 1868…

The camera which Spurstow destroyed in the end of Kipling's narrative captured something not only terrifying but beyond belief, yet completely unknown to the reader. Pictured here is a magazine advertisement for a Pocket Kodak camera in 1895, likely the closest resemblance to Hummil's camera.

McClure's Magazine 1895. File:Pocket Kodak Camera Advert (McClure's Magazine 1895).jpg. Image. Wikimedia Commons, 1895, https://commons.…