Open House at AIIT for Open Cambridge 2017

Jo SalisburyNews 1 Comment

Last Saturday afternoon, the Ancient India and Iran Trust opened up its library and collections to all, as part of Open Cambridge 2017. This was the first time the trust had taken part in the festival, now in its tenth year, which saw many of Cambridge University’s colleges and institutions, and 20 other partner organisations around the city taking part in a weekend of over 97 events.  From architectural projects, old and new, to outstanding exhibitions and guided walks and talks, the festival offered access to many places and projects …

Recent library acquisitions from India

Jo SalisburyBook Notes Leave a Comment

The trust library recently added to its collection a substantial acquisition of books from the National Museum, Delhi, following our participation in the museum’s hosting of the exhibition ‘The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination’ in 2016. These beautifully illustrated volumes are all catalogued on Cambridge University Library’s iDiscover search platform and are available to view at the trust: Rupa-Pratirupa: The Body in Indian Art / Naman P. Ahuja. New Delhi: National Museum, 2014. [Publication to accompany an exhibition held at National Museum, New Delhi from 14th March to …

‘Restoration of the Palaces of the Western side of the platform at Nimroud’, lithograph from drawing by Baynes, supervised by James Fergusson, ca. 1850, from A.H. Layard, A second series of the monuments of Nineveh (London, 1853), plate 1

‘Nineveh’ in Bombay and Histories of Indian Archaeology

Ursula Sims-WilliamsNews Leave a Comment

In connection with her talk ‘Nineveh’ in Bombay and Histories of Indian Archaeology at the Ancient India & Iran Trust on 21 October, Sudeshna Guha has kindly allowed us to repost her article on the same subject which was originally published by Scroll.in on 13 December 2015 A little-known 19th-century history of “Nineveh” in Bombay provides a glimpse of the many new histories, which collections, and their visualisation and displays, allow us to establish. It also underlines the importance of noting the ways in which we establish historical evidence, and …

AIIT’s Flavour of the Month

Jo SalisburyStories from the Collection 1 Comment

When the Trust was invited by Alan Alder, one of the regular presenters on Cambridge105’s Saturday food programme Flavour, to participate in a feature on food-related books in Cambridge libraries, we thought why not. Although we are not known for our gastronomical collections, it was interesting to note how many books we discovered that were not just cookery books, but also included content on the social and cultural aspects of food in Indian, Zoroastrian and Central Asian life and history. From the collection of two of our founding Trustees, Raymond …

Unknown Photographer, Portrait of Major-General Linnaeus Tripe (1822-1902), Madras Army, (?)1880s, British Library, Photo 612(1)

Captain Linnaeus Tripe Exhibition at the V&A

Jo SalisburyNews Leave a Comment

Once heard, the exotically-named Linnaeus Tripe is difficult to forget. Yet even in his own lifetime and certainly in the century and more since his death in 1902, appreciation of one of the most accomplished photographers in 19th-century India has been restricted to a limited circle of photographic and architectural historians. A comprehensive survey exhibition of his work, to which the British Library was a major lender, has been on show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York over the …