Calcutta
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Calcutta. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the capital of British India. It is situated on the east bank of the Hoogly, a short cut from the Ganges to the sea, and is about eighty miles from the Bay of Bengal. Its wharves extend for ten miles along the Hoogly. The water front is well built with warehouses and places of business. The river is crossed by a pontoon bridge. The government house occupies six acres. Fort William, begun by Governor Clive, has been completed at a cost of $10,000,000. There are fine parks and drives, tramways, and electric lights. Outside of the modern city lie extensive native suburbs of mud huts, little better, travelers assert, than pigsties. Water obtained from the Hoogly, twelve miles up, is filtered in huge tanks. Such provision has been made for sewers as is possible in a city built on a dead level only a few feet above the river. The death rate has been reduced to about 30 per 1,000 inhabitants annually. Cholera is said never to be absent from the filthy native quarters. Rainy July and August are the healthful season; midwinter is the worst. The annual rainfall is about sixty-six inches; the mean temperature for the year about 79 degree. Calcutta is the center of an extensive railway system. It is the chief port of foreign commerce, exceeding even Bombay in this respect. There are seldom fewer than 200 ships at the wharves. Calcutta is reputed to have the largest tea warehouse in the world. The export trade of the city amounts to about forty-three per cent of that of all India. It is carried on chiefly with London by way of the Suez Canal . It exceeds $250,000,000 a year. Opium is exported to China. The principal articles of export are cotton, cotton-seed, jute, wheat, tea, rice, indigo, leather, hides, furs, coffee, lac, and wool. The principal imports are cotton and woolen cloth, yarn, iron goods, and machinery. The present population is about 1,026,000. See Bombay ; India ; Black Hole; Opium ; Brahmans 2026 Editor's Note: By way of comparison, Kolkata (the article's Calcutta) today has about 4.5 million in the city and some 15 million in its metro area, up from the 1,026,000 this article reports. (Ed: BR 2026-06-23)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Hindustan, capital of the presidency of Bengal, until 1912 capital of the British dominions in the East and seat of the supreme government, on the Hooghly river, an arm of the Ganges, about 100 miles N. of the Bay of Bengal. On approaching the city from the sea, it presents a magnificent appearance, with its elegant villas on each side of the river, the government botanical gardens, its numerous spires of churches and temples, and the strong and regular citadel of Fort William. This city extends along the bank of the Ganges for 6 miles, and has an average breadth of 2 miles. A handsome quay, the Strand, about 40 feet above low-water mark, embanks the river for about 3 miles, and is furnished with about 30 principal ghauts, or landing-places. The river here is about a mile in width, and is crowded with shipping. The European residents live mostly in the Chowringhee suburb of the city, and at Garden Reach, in beautiful and detached villas. The citadel, or Fort William, is not only the strongest and most complete fortress in India, but also in the British dominions. Calcutta is popularly denominated the "City of Palaces," and this is not an overdrawn appellation. It is certainly replete with magnificent buildings, but, nevertheless, like all Eastern cities, it contains quarters, inhabited by the native people, which are dingy-looking and mean. Among the principal public edifices are the Government House, Mint, Custom House, the Scotch, Portuguese, Greek, and American churches, the Courts of Justice, colleges, hospitals, etc. The environs of the city are very attractive, and its market is admirably supplied with the choicest game, fruits, etc. European society here is gay and convivial; but a certain degree of for mality prevails, and the Brahminical institution of "caste" would appear to have communicated itself to all the ranks and classes of Europeans. Pop., including Howrah and suburbs, about 1,300,000.