Yankee India

Yankee India charts the beginnings of America’s fascination with the subcontinent. Independence from Britain in 1783 brought American merchants and ship-owners the freedom to trade in Asia and the hope of handsome profits. Material embodiments of India at the time (paintings and figurines, fans and other curiosities, and goods like bandannas and bedcovers) recreate the visual dimension of these encounters and illustrate the resources out of which Americans constructed their images of India. Previously untapped archives of the Peabody Essex Museum provide the principal resources for this exploration of commercial and cultural relations between these nations in the age of sail, which laid the foundation for American views of India. Yankee India brings this important but little known episode to a wide range of readers interested in the histories of the United States and India, and in the impacts of intercultural encounters.