Gauhar Jaan, the first Indian singer to be recorded

Gauhar Jaan was the first Indian singer to make a gramophone recording, in 1902. Several generations in India grew up with her songs.

She was born Angelina Yeoward in Calcutta, in the Ganges delta in eastern India. Her father was Armenian and her mother Jewish. Between 1902 and 1920 Gauhar recorded about 600 discs, 150 of which have survived to this day.

The photograph shows a young woman in an embroidered velvet costume with strings of pearls, leaning on the back of a carved chair.