A voyage from England to Bombay with descriptions in Asia, Africa, and South America.
Published / Created:
1765-1800.
Physical Description:
13 volumes : illustrations, maps ; 54 cm
Collection:
Rare Books and Manuscripts
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Copyright Not Evaluated
Related Content:
View a description and listing of collection contents in the finding aid
https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/ycba.mss.0066
Classification:
Archives & Manuscripts
Notes:
After spending almost twenty years in India working for the East India Company, James Forbes returned to England in 1784. He had kept a daily journal in India, where he recorded the fauna, flora, landscape, buildings, and people of Bombay and the surrounding area, eventually filling up 150 folio volumes with his drawings and observations. They served as the basis for his illustrated Oriental memoirs (published in 4 volumes, from 1813 to 1815), but do not seem to have survived. It appears likely that he dismantled them, copying text as he needed, and cutting out drawings and watercolors, either for an engraver to copy for publication or for remounting in other volumes, such as the set he presented to his daughter Elizabeth on her twelfth birthday.
Exhibition History:
Adapting the Eye: an archive of the British in India, 1770-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-10-11 - 2011-12-31)Paul Mellon's Legacy : A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)
Subject Terms:
Forbes, James, 1749-1819. | Forbes, James, 1749-1819 -- Travel. | Forbes, James, 1749-1819 -- Correspondence. | Forbes, James, 1749-1819. Oriental memoirs. | Forbes, James, 1749-1819. Descriptive letters and drawings. | Montalembert, Eliza Rosée, comtesse de, -1839. | East India Company -- Officials and employees. | Animals -- India -- Pictorial works. | Clothing and dress -- India -- Pictorial works. | Natural history -- India -- Pictorial works. | Plants -- India -- Pictorial works. | Bombay (India) -- Description and travel. | Bombay (India) -- Pictorial works. | India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947. | India -- Description and travel. | India -- Pictorial works. | India -- Social life and customs. | South Africa -- Description and travel. | South Africa -- Pictorial works. | Montalembert, Eliza Rosée, comtesse de, -1839 -- Ownership. | Montalembert, Charles Forbes, comte de, 1810-1870 -- Ownership. | Oscott College -- Ownership.
