- Rabindranath Tagore standing in front of a special plane provided by KLM before boarding it on his way to Persia (Iran) from the Calcutta airport in 1932.
- Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose getting off a KLM plane in 1938.
- Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh on February 19, 1961, standing along with then chief minister of West Bengal, BC Roy, and governor Padmaja Naidu.
- Fidel Castro getting off a plane on September 17, 1973.
Most of these and several other photographs, some taken nearly 100 years ago, of heads of states, Nobel laureates and politicians, which were in the archives of the Calcutta airport, are now on display at the terminal.
The exhibition of rare photographs, showcasing Calcutta airport’s rich history, was inaugurated on December 21 after the programme to celebrate 100 years of operations of the city airport.
The exhibition is at the junction of the domestic and international sections of the terminal building on the departure level.
“There are about 100 such photographs kept in the building in which the air traffic control tower is located. Some of these are now part of the exhibition. More pictures will be exhibited in phases,” said Pravat Ranjan Beuria, airport director, on Monday. “These photographs were taken by the airport staff.”
Then Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport was known as Dum Dum Airport.
One of the photographs, which is yet to be displayed, shows Tagore, then 71, standing near an aircraft.
In 1932, Tagore flew from Calcutta to Persia in a special plane provided by KLM, a Dutch airline, a note along with the photograph, states. He described the KLM aircraft as “Sky Chariot” and “Mechanical Pegasus” in his memoirs, according to the note.
The flight had stopoversat Allahabad and Jodhpur before it arrived in Karachi. Airport officials said according to the note, Tagore had spent the night in Karachi with the crew and other passengers and reached Persia on April 13.
One of the photographs shows Helen Keller, American author and disability rights advocate, at Dum Dum Airport on March 31, 1955.
Another shows Robert Robinson, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1947, at the airport on January 10, 1950. Standing along with him were Satyen Bose, Meghnad Saha, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Nityananda Kanungo and others, who went to receive the Nobel laureate.
C Rajagopalachari, the last governor-general of India, is seen in a picture, photographed in front of the old lounge and ATC building that was operational until 1972.
“There is a lot of interest among passengers about the exhibition. Some of them are also taking selfies,” said the airport director. However, some of the passengers said if the exhibition was installed inside the boarding area then more passengers could have seen it.
Civil aviation minister Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu inaugurated the exhibition on Saturday.
The Telegraph had earlier reported how barely seven flights had operated 100 years back in 1924 at the Calcutta airport. Now more than 400 flights take off and land every day.
The 100-year celebration will go on till March 2025, said an official.