Yankee India [signed]

Built around mariners' journals of their pioneering voyages, Yankee India charts the early development of commercial and cultural relations between the United States and India in the Age of Sail. Material embodiments of India at the time such as prints, paintings, and figurines depicting Indian scenes and people; "hubble-bubbles", idols, fans, and other souvenirs; as well as goods like bandannas, palampores, and shawls, augment and illustrate the story. Previously untapped archives and collections of the Peabody Essex Museum, whose founders were captains and super-cargoes in the Asia trade, provide the principal resources.These first encounters between the United States and India in the Age of Sail laid the foundation for American views of India and contributed to the development of American and Indian national and cultural sensibilities. 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 cultural encounters.