On 27 December 1833 the Morning Post reported a spate of thefts in London.  Thieves had been targeting food being delivered for Christmas dinners – joints of meat, fish, turkeys, hares and pheasants.

Butcher's boy from London Characters drawn by Horace William Petherick, Image courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute.

These ‘market scamps’ noted houses had taken in a delivery and then, with a tray on their shoulder, knocked at the door.  They told the servant that an inferior cut had been left in error and that they would substitute the correct sort in a few minutes.  The servant, glad that the mistake had been detected, nearly always handed over the meat.  The thieves then quickly sold it to a new customer.

A family in Bishopsgate Street had been robbed of turkey and a piece of beef by a man looking like a butcher.  One man, who had pawned his watch to give his children an extra treat on Christmas Day, had the joint stolen and so had to make do with a couple of sheep’s heads.

However, Mr Willoughby of Bishopsgate Street had read about the scam in the newspapers.  When a man knocked at his door and told his servant that the wrong beef had been delivered, Willoughby seized him and handed him over to a law officer.

The prisoner gave his name as James Smith.  He was remanded in custody so that those who had been robbed of their Christmas dinners could come to ’look at him’.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further Reading:
British Newspaper Archive – also available via Findmypast

Enjoy puzzles?  Try researching women hand bookbinders in the early 1900s!  ‘Lady binders’ was a hot topic in newspapers, but they tended to work for a restricted period, their careers cut short by various events including marriage (which usually involved a change of surname) and the social and economic upheavals of the First World War.

In careers articles and exhibition reviews, women binders are often referred to as ‘Miss’ plus surname.  Miss M. Marshall, the binder of Library’s newly acquired copy of William Morris's Poems (1908) has proved difficult to research, but we can reveal her identity.

Gold tooled green goatskin binding by M. Marshall on William Morris, Poems, 1908 (shelf mark to be assigned).

In an electoral register for London’s Holborn 1907-1908, a Maud Marshall is shown as joint occupier of a shop at 6 Denmark Street with Edith Gedye, who was a bookbinder.  Maud’s residential address is given as 18 Blomfield Street, Paddington. Through this address, Maud Marshall the bookbinder can be linked to her siblings Mary Crawford Marshall and Angus McPherson Marshall who were living there at the time of the 1911 census.  Mary was born in Yokohama, Japan.  In 1911, bookbinder Maud Marshall was living in Claygate, Surrey, and her place of birth was Japan.

Emily Maud Marshall was born on 12 January 1869 in Yokohama, the daughter of merchant William Marshall and his wife Clementina Strachan née McLean.  Her father died suddenly at Yokohama on 4 September 1873 and the family returned to England.  Clementina died in 1900.

Based in London during the first decade of the 20th century, Maud Marshall worked as a bookbinder in collaboration with Edith Gedye.  Their binding styles were influenced by William Morris and T. J. Cobden-Sanderson's Arts and Crafts movement (as were many contemporary hand binders) but it is not known who taught them.  The pair exhibited their bindings at Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society shows in 1903 and 1906.  From 1904 to 1907, the book seller Bain helped them sell their work.  Newspaper articles indicate that they submitted their bindings to many amateur and professional competitions, and they regularly received first prizes, certificates and honorable mentions.

Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society - catalogue of the seventh exhibition, the New Gallery, 121 Regent St. 1903. Images from Internet Archive. Digitised book from the collections of the Archive of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, uploaded by V&A staff.

Maud Marshall contributed a piece on bookbinding to The Fingerpost. A guide to the professions and occupations of educated women first published in 1906.  She wrote: ‘Of the many careers opened of late years to women, bookbinding is perhaps the one most attractive in point of interest, combining as it does physical, mental and artistic effort.  Whether it is a lucrative career must depend entirely upon the individual’.

A career in artistic bookbinding could certainly be an uphill struggle for women, as emphasised in this article from The Queen.

The Queen 28 May 1910 p.42 British Newspaper Archive

Gedye and Marshall offered lessons in bookbinding.  This not only provided an increased income stream for the business but also gave experience to those not otherwise able to learn the craft (notably women who were not usually eligible for apprenticeships).  They also devised a way of obtaining patronage from country house owners by offering to bind together family correspondence and supplying albums to be used for visitors’ books.

Country Life 19 December 1903 lxiv British Newspaper Archive

In 1910 the pair begun to work independently, with Edith moving to Bristol.  Maud continued to rent business premises in London, but in the 1921 census she is listed in Ware, Hertfordshire, ‘not occupied for a living’.  She died in Aldingbourne, Sussex, on 25 March 1940.

Lower turn-in with signature of M. Marshall.

P J M Marks, Curator, Bookbindings
Margaret Makepeace, Lead Curator East India Company Records

Further reading:
Marianne Tidcombe, Women Bookbinders 1880-1920, 1996
The Fingerpost: A Guide to the Professions and Occupations of Educated Women, with Information as to Necessary Training (London: Central Employment Bureau for Women and Students, 1906.)
See also British Library C.188.a.412. In an early twentieth century English brown goat skin binding tooled in gold and onlaid. Signed: M & G 1905 [i.e. Miss Marshall and Edith J. Gedye]
British Newspaper Archive

 

As a volunteer house guide and researcher at the National Trust property Calke Abbey, I’ve been researching the origins of a historically significant state bed, perhaps the most renowned and prominent object at Calke Abbey.

The State Bed, with colourful Chinese silk hangings at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. Image 48533. NTPL Commissioned (NTPL). ©National Trust Images/Mark Fiennes. Image courtesy of National Trust.

The bed features near-perfect embroidered silk hangings.  The vivid blue outer curtains, embroidered with silk, gold thread, and accents of peacock feathers, depict birds, dragons, butterflies, and trees, standing in striking contrast to the soft ivory silk interior adorned with enchanting designs of human figures, blossoming foliage, and wildlife.

The bed remained uninstalled when the estate was gifted to the National Trust in 1985.

My current research is re-evaluating the origins of the state bed.  I am examining physical characteristics of China trade silks, regional embroidery traditions, archival records, and locations where Chinese silks were traded and workshops where the silks were embroidered.  Part of a working theory explores possible connections to the East India Company (EIC) as part of the bed’s history.  I began my research by selecting a handful of EIC ships believed to be from the period of the state bed.

During the process, I came across an unexpected treasure: a journal from a 1709-1712 voyage of the ship Rochester, captained by Francis Stanes.  This journal, filled with beautiful handwriting and detailed drawings, chronicles the captain’s journey from England to China and back.

Journal of the ship Rochester - IOR/L/MAR/B/137B

Captain Stanes’s journal includes sketches of coastlines and wildlife, alongside meticulous notes on weather, his knowledge of navigation, and records of those who died aboard.

Captain Francis Stanes's drawing of the coast of China - IOR/L/MAR/B/137B 

 

Skull and crossbones marking the death of Chief Mate Robert Sheppard on board the Rochester March 1709/10 - IOR/L/MAR/B/137B 

 

Drawing of a fish -  IOR/L/MAR/B/137B 

 

Harbour of Chusan - IOR/L/MAR/B/137B

During my research, Margaret Makepeace, Lead Curator for EIC Records at the British Library, provided me with valuable information.  A letter from the Company directors to Fort St George dated 13 January 1713/14, stated that Captain Francis Stanes would not be employed again because of his mismanagement of the Rochester voyage.

Letter from the Company directors to Fort St George stating that Captain Francis Stanes would not be employed again because of his mismanagement of the Rochester's voyage - IOR/E/3/98 p.140.

Reports had surfaced that goods had been secretly loaded onto the Rochester, with claims that saltpetre had been purchased in Batavia for sale in China—a trade forbidden under penalty of death.

Minutes of the Court of Directors 13 February 1712/13 concerning saltpetre allegedly purchased at Batavia - IOR/B/52 p.311

Third Officer Robert Gardiner offered to provide evidence of fraud.

Third officer Robert Gardiner's offer to provide evidence of fraud in Minutes of the Court of Directors 25 March 1713 - IOR/B/52 p.348

The supercargoes had not kept proper business records (IOR/B/52 p.202).  Although an inquiry was held, the Court Minutes don’t provide a specific verdict; however, the directors barred Captain Stanes from future employment, citing mismanagement of the voyage.  Arbitrators ultimately determined payments owed to the supercargoes, captain, and officers, who appear to have had substantial allowances for private trade.

Eighteen years later, in July 1731, Jeremiah Glass, a sailor who had been on the Rochester, wrote to the East India Company offering to provide evidence of embezzlement involving Captain Francis Stanes and the chief supercargo Charles Douglas.

Letter to the East India Company from Jeremiah Glass and others - Mss Eur C618

Jeremiah Glass was at Spithead on a Royal Navy ship.  In August the EIC asked George Huish, its agent at Portsmouth, to talk to Glass.  Huish reported back that the evidence was just hearsay. The EIC told Huish to re-examine him, but the matter seems to have been dropped when Glass’s ship sailed.

EIC Secretary Christopher Mole at East India House to George Huish at Portsmouth, 5 August 1721 - IOR/E/1/203 p.81

 

Noah D. Nelson
Volunteer House Guide & Researcher (Calke Abbey, National Trust)

Further Reading:

Silberstein, Rachel. A Fashionable Century: Textile Artistry and Commerce in the Late Qing. University of Washington Press, 2020.

Calke Abbey State Bed 

Memento Mori brought to life in a painting

 

The British Library holds several early photograph albums compiled by the Dillwyn Llewelyn and Story-Maskelyne families (Photo 1246).  The broader collection includes eight albums containing photographs, two sketchbooks, watercolour drawings, seven journals, letters and a four-part memoir.  This collection showcases Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn (later Story-Maskelyne) as one of the first female photographers during a period of discovery and experimentation in early photography.

Thereza Llewelyn and dickies, 1854. salted paper print from collodion negative. Photographer: John Dillwyn Llewelyn. © British Library, Photo 1246/1(11).

Thereza was the eldest child of John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-82), photographer and botanist, and Emma Thomasina Talbot (d. 1881), born on 3 May 1834 into a wealthy Welsh family with a strong interest in various scientific fields, including photography.

‘My earliest recollections connected with it carry me back to somewhere about 1841…, when as a child - I sat for my portrait taken by my Father … no one living at Penllergare could help being interested in what was of absorbing interest to my Father & Mother and I must have heard many conversations on the subject when letters to my Mother from her Cousin Henry Fox Talbot arrived.’ [Add MS 89120/10]

It was uncommon for women to practice photography during this period.  Thereza would assist her father with his photographic experiments, but her photographic albums and journals show that she was a photographer in her own right.  On her 22nd birthday (3 May 1856), she received a journal and a camera. ‘I saw Papa make 2 stereoscopes, with the new stereoscopic camera that he gave me for my birthday present - I intend to work hard with it, so as to get some pictures worthy of it.' [Add MS 89120/4]

Her journals describe her various photographic activities and highlight the prints in her photo albums.  The albums frequently contain the work of more than one individual, as nearly every family member and their friends were involved in photography.

‘September 6th - After lunch Emma dressed up as a gipsy, and Willy made a capital hut, and represented a wild looking gipsy man looking out, whilst Emma seated on a basket turned topsy-turvy told Caroline’s fortune.  Papa photographed the scene which was very picturesque & pretty, & I made a photo stereoscope thereof.’ [Add MS 89120/5]

Gipsies, 1856. salted paper print from stereoscopic collodion negative. Photographer: Thereza Story-Maskelyne. © British Library, Photo 1246/1(32).

Thereza had other scientific interests, including astronomy and botany, for which she used photography to record her findings.

Delesseria sanguinea or Sea Beech [Botanical Specimen], c. 1854. Negative paper contact Photographer: Thereza Story-Maskelyne. © British Library, Photo 1246/2(27).

Her father built an Equatorial Observatory for her in the early 1850s.  The Observatory made it possible for them to take photos of the moon.  In her memoirs, she mentions that her father ‘made a photo of the moon, and as moon light requires much slow exposure it was my business to keep the Telescope moving steadily as there [was]no clockwork action.’  She states, ‘That was one of the first [photographs] ever made of the moon’. [Add MS 89120/9]

Moon c. 1857. salted paper print. Photographer: John Dillwyn Llewelyn and Thereza Story-Maskelyne. © British Library, Photo 1246/1(49).

Her last entry in her journals was in August 1857, and next year, on 29 June 1858, she married (Mervyn Herbert) Nevil Story Maskelyne, a mineralogist and an associate of both her father and Fox Talbot.  Her interests may have taken a back seat to marriage and family.  Still, photography remained part of her life, as she took photographs of her family and travels.

[Portrait of Nevil Story-Maskelyne with Mary and William Arnold-Forster, 1890]. Albumen print. Photographer: Thereza Story-Maskelyne. © British Library, Photo 1246/7(12).

This collection is a beautiful insight into one of the earliest female photographers.

Susan M. Harris
Cataloguer of Photographs

Further Reading:
Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic collection, Photo 1246
The Papers of Thereza Story-Maskelyne (1834-1926), Add MS 89120
Noel Cahanan, The Photographer of Penllergare: a life of John Dillwyn Llewelyn 1810-1882 (2013)
Richard Morris, Penllergare A Victorian Paradise (1999)
V. Morton, Oxford Rebels: the life and friends of Nevil Story Maskelyne, 1823–1911 (1987)

The cataloguing and research of this collection (Photo 1246) is part of the British Library’s Unlocking Hidden Collections initiative, with the aim to open collections and make them more accessible to researchers and the public. Readers wishing to consult this collection should write to [email protected] and arrange an appointment in the British Library’s Print Room (Asia and Africa Reading Room).

Samuel Hough first appears in the records of the East India Company as Master Attendant of Marine at Bombay in the 1730s.  The Marine fleet guarded British shipping on the west coast of India mainly from attack by local pirates but also from other nations at time of war.  His position gave him standing in the community and he must have been a brave officer, as shown by an event in 1748 when he was in command of the Bombay, at anchor at Rajapore.  Some of his crew had been impressed, but on 1 March the remainder mutinied and broke open the arms-chest.  Hough managed to reason with the men, promising safe passage back to England at the first opportunity and after seven hours he took back control.  His promise was honoured by the Government who needed crew to man ships on the return to England at this time of war with France.

An aquatint of a view of Bombay Harbour from the pier up to the Bunder Battery including part of the fort or Citadel. From James Wales, Bombay Views: Twelve Views Of The Island Of Bombay And Its Vicinity Taken In The Years 1791 And 1792. British Library shelfmark X 436. Images Online

Shortly after this, on 19 May 1748, Captain Samuel Hough married Mrs Judith Sclater, a widow with two small daughters.  They had two more daughters (Louisa and Ann) before Judith died in January 1752.  At the end of that year Samuel took all four little girls back to England on the Streatham, disembarking on 7 June 1753.

On 16 March 1754 Samuel Hough married Martha Crichton at St Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury.  She came from a family well established in the East India Company and within a few weeks she sailed off to Bombay.  Her husband captained their voyage on the Hardwicke which was to remain in Bombay as part of the Marine.

They had been joined on the Streatham by Laurence Sulivan and his family, also returning home.  The two men had been friends and business associates and this arrangement continued to their mutual advantage. Back in Bombay Hough acted as an agent holding powers of attorney on behalf of his clients and could provide ways of remitting Indian funds through confidants among his fellow captains, to be deposited with Sulivan in London, on their behalf.

Appointment of Samuel Hough as Superintendent of the Bombay Marine - IOR/E/4/996 p.69 General Letter from Court of Directors to Bombay 5 April 1754

Samuel Hough was appointed Superintendent of the Bombay Marine, the highest ranking officer below the Council members.  It is clear he was greatly respected and his opinion was valued by the Council.  By 1759 he had become one of the Council members but he returned to England on the Harcourt, arriving back on 18 May 1761.  By this time his family had grown - Louisa and Ann were joined by a baby brother William and a sister Elizabeth.

Entry from the journal of the ship Streatham Wednesday 29 November 1752 - IOR/L/MAR/B/605H

Back in London Hough continued his involvement with the East India Company by investing in and managing ships.  He was the second signature on the charterparty agreements for five ships in the 1761/2 season with four more voyages for 1762/3.

Samuel died on 5 September 1764 at Bath.  In his will he left bequests to his three daughters and his son William but also named a ‘natural son Samuel Hough, now a mate on the Latham Indiaman’.  Samuel junior went on to become a sea captain with the East India Company, married in September 1777 but died a year later.

CC-BY
Georgina Green
Independent researcher

Creative Commons Attribution licence

 

The National Lottery is celebrating its 30th anniversary.  To mark this occasion we look at one of the collections acquired with the help of National Lottery funding: the papers of Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, as Viceroy of India 1876-1880.

Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India. Grand Master of the Star of India, c. 1876. From J. Talboys Wheeler, The History of the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi (London, 1877). British Library shelfmark Photo 1054/(2). Images Online

Lytton was born in 1831, son of the writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.  Following his education at Harrow and the University of Bonn, he entered the diplomatic service in 1849.  He spent the first half of his career in various diplomatic posts around Europe and was serving as British Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon when he was appointed Viceroy of India in 1876 by the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.  His term of office would be controversial entailing war in Afghanistan, famine in India and an attempt to tighten British control over the native press.  The collection includes letters from a wide range of people in India and England, as well as correspondence between Lytton and the Secretary of State for India, and British officials and politicians on matters relating to Indian government.  There are also letters to and from members of the British Royal family.

Map showing the frontier with Afghanistan 1880 - Mss Eur E218/126

Perhaps not surprisingly, a dominant subject of the papers in the collection is Afghanistan and the Second Anglo-Afghan war.  The rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia, often referred to as the Great Game, was one of the defining aspects of British foreign policy in the mid-19th century.  Lytton had been given the task of securing an alliance with the Amir of Afghanistan Sher Ali Khan who was thought to be too pro-Russian, but on failing in this he opted to order an invasion instead.  The collection contains correspondence, minutes, reports, and notes on relations with the Amir of Afghanistan, future policy, and the frontiers of India, for example:
• Correspondence respecting relations with Afghanistan since the accession of Sher Ali Khan, Jul 1863 to Nov 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/123.
• Minutes and notes by the Viceroy relating to Afghanistan and the frontiers of India, 1876-1880, reference Mss Eur E218/125.
• Correspondence and other papers concerning the attack on the British Embassy at Kabul and subsequent military operations, Sep 1879 to Mar 1880, reference Mss Eur E218/127.

A statement on the Indian Famine of 1877 - Mss Eur E218/136

One of the most controversial aspects of Lytton’s time as Viceroy was his government’s response to the great famine of 1876-1878.  This was caused by drought leading to crop failure, affecting many parts of India, with the death toll estimated at between 6 and 10 million people.  The high mortality rate was in part blamed on the government’s minimal famine relief measures. The collection includes several files on the famine, such as:
• Volume of cuttings from Indian and newspapers concerning the famine, Jul 1877 to Feb 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/134.
• Volume of printed weather reports from each province and of rain telegrams sent to the Private Secretary's Office, Jul 1877 to Jan 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/135.
• The Indian Famine of 1877 being a statement of the measures proposed by the Government of India for the prevention and relief of famines in the future (1878), reference Mss Eur E218/136.

Minute by the Viceroy Lord Lytton on Afghanistan - Mss Eur E218/125

The collection also touches on other aspects of Indian government, such as Indian finances, new legislation, appointments to the Indian Civil Service, and includes two files on attempts to control Indian newspapers and publications:
• Papers concerning the Native Press and the 1878 Vernacular Press Act, 1858-1881, reference Mss Eur E218/146.
• Correspondence between the Secretary of State for India and the Government of India on the control of publications in Oriental languages, 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/147.

Weather Reports for Hyderabad July 1877 - Mss Eur E218/135

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Papers of 1st Earl of Lytton as Viceroy of India 1876-1880, collection reference Mss Eur E218. Deposited on permanent loan by Lady Hermione Cobbold in 1955. Purchased from Lord Cobbold in 2004 with assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Friends of the British Library, The Friends of the National Libraries and The Lord Farringdon Charitable Trust.

A list of the Lytton Papers can be found on The National Archives'  Discovery catalogue: Papers of 1st Earl of Lytton as Viceroy of India 1876-80.

 

For Green Libraries Week 2024 curators at the British Library selected items that address climate and sustainability.  While the climate crisis is an issue we are facing today, historical holdings can help us understand the threats and effects of natural catastrophes better.  Two 15th-century books from the British Library’s incunabula collection provide insights into how people experienced and interpreted such extreme natural events in the Early Modern era.

The Magdalene Flood of 1480 was a devastating disaster that struck the area around the Aare and the Rhine as well as other rivers in the Swiss Mittelland and Upper Rhine region in July 1480.  According to the Bern Chronicle (Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Mss. H.h.l.16), on the Thursday before St Mary Magdalene Feast Day (29 July 1480) it started raining for three days and three nights.  The weather in the weeks before had been extremely hot so that 'glaciers and snowy mountains had warmed'.  The flood caused extensive destruction of buildings and bridges leaving many without a home or their possessions.

Detail from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle showing the Middle Bridge in Basel.  Liber chronicarum [German] Das Buch der Croniken und Geschichten. Tr: Georg Alt. Nuremberg : Anton Koberger, for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 23 Dec. 1493 (is00309000). London, British Library (IC.7458)

Hieronymus Brilinger (1469-1537) recollects that 'people standing on the bridge [in Basel] could easily wash their hands in the Rhine'.  Looking at the city panorama in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), one of the most significant examples of 15th-century printing, puts this quote into perspective: we can spot the bridge in question and imagine the rising water, which eventually flooded large parts of the city centre.  Environmental historians are able to use historical sources like these to reconstruct previous floods and to better prevent similar catastrophic events today.  Literary texts, too, bear witness to the effects of catastrophic events.  In Varia Carmina (1489), a collection of Latin poetry by Sebastian Brant, contains a poem about the 1480 flood: ‘De diluvio aquarum intimatio ad ecclesiam Basiliensem Anno domini. 1480’.  It is an emotive appeal to Neptune, the Roman god of freshwater and the sea, asking him to 'stay in the depths of his kingdom'. 'You force the animals of the sea to visit the mountains – and the whales of Proteus (a sea god) have to graze in beech forests'.  Using references to classical mythology, it is not a realistic account of the flood but instead uses literary features typical for learned humanist literature.

Opening in Sebastian Brant’s poetry collection showing the start of ‘De diluvio aquarum intimatio ad ecclesiam Basiliensem Anno domini. 1480’. Brant, Sebastian: Varia carmina. Add: Johann Bergmann. Basel : Johann Bergmann, de Olpe, 1 May [14]98 (ib01099000). London, British Library (IA.37949).

Alyssa Steiner
Curator, Printed Heritage Collections

Further reading:
Christian Pfister and Oliver Wetter: Das Jahrtausendhochwasser von 1480 an Aare und Rhein, in: Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte 04/11, pp. 41–49.

 

In October I had the pleasure of attending the Connecting Threads: Fashioning Madras in India and the Caribbean Symposium at the V&A Museum.  This event focused on exploring the cultural and textile history of 18th-century Madras textiles, their production in South India, and their interwoven link with the Caribbean.

Madras Handkerchief made by Sooboo Chetty, c.1855. V&A, 4968(IS)

The Connecting Threads project is a collaboration among various specialists, aiming to amplify the voices and contributions of Indian weavers and African Caribbean consumers who have adopted Madras as part of their heritage, shifting the narrative away from colonial and Western markets.  The project’s accompanying website, Connecting Threads, supports this initiative.  With born-digital scholarship, the project aims to democratise research, reach a wider audience, and address Open Access data issues by making their resources freely available globally.  They also hope to influence the development of AI knowledge about Madras textiles, promoting a less Eurocentric view of its visual history.

The Programme
The programme featured 14 speakers from various backgrounds and specialisms, including curators, professors, historians, craftspeople, artists, and business owners.  Throughout the day, we viewed microscope-enhanced images of 18th-century and modern Madras handkerchiefs, analysed by the research team and a Chennai master weaver.  There were lectures on their production and how different caste groups, sexes, and religions may have worn them.  For example, Muslim groups were noted in inscriptions from 1538 for their specific weaving techniques (source: Uthra Rajagopal, scholar and curator).  There was some discussion into trade by the English East India Company and other European traders, and the appropriation of designs to be reproduced in Britain.

A Company painting titled ‘A Weaver and his wife’, c.1800. V&A, AL.8940N

Caribbean experts and scholars gave excellent talks and demonstrations on the trade and cultural use of Madras, particularly by enslaved or low-income groups.  The usage is complex, but the talks generally emphasized Madras’s positive context—its power in Caribbean island identity and, amusingly, the historical use of head wraps as flirtatious signifiers of availability.

Exquisite handmade dolls were displayed to the attendees, a real example of the integrated nature of Madras in Caribbean culture.  These dolls, currently held at the Bristol Museum, were made in the 1780s by Rebecca Ahmuty Snagg, a domestic enslaved woman in Grenada who died a free woman.  They were likely crafted for the children of the family that bought Rebecca, and they feature Madras head coverings, emulating the real-life articles worn by black Caribbean women at the time.

One of three of the Rebecca Ahmuty Snagg dolls, currently held at the Bristol Museum Collections - photograph by author

The conference was an insightful addition in the ongoing initiative to decolonise and diversify our collections.  This line of research is gaining momentum, with frequent discussions at the British Library on how to rethink our catalogues to promote a more diverse and inclusive narrative.

Maddy Clark
India Office Records

Further information about the Connecting Threads project can be found on their resource website and the V&A website.
Connecting Threads
Connecting Threads: Fashioning Madras in India and the Caribbean