Botanical Treasure, Ornamental Wonder? Aestheticizing Tea in Britain and Colonial Calcutta (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Botanical Treasure, Ornamental Wonder? Aestheticizing Tea in Britain and Colonial Calcutta
Abstract: How did the tea plant, essentially a Chinese import, produce aesthetic encounters in Britain and colonial Calcutta in the eighteenth century? In 1786, Colonel Robert Kyd created a botanical garden in Calcutta to experiment with growing economically lucrative plants, including Chinese tea. If successful, the plan would relieve the East India Company of their dependence on the China Trade. It would also usher in a distinctly “British” culture of tea drinking, whose profound impact on multiple visual domains ranging from the botanical to the ornamental, would spill over into gardens and drawing rooms in colonial India.
Author: Romita Ray
Date: 04/11/16
Location: Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, India
Primary URL: http://www.victoriamemorial-cal.org/specialevents.html
Primary URL Description: Link to "Special Events" page on the Victoria Memorial Hall website featuring an announcement about the public presentation.
Secondary URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/US-scholar-on-tea-trail-to-dig-up-treasure-trove/articleshow/51770311.cms
Secondary URL Description: "The Times of India," a national newspaper in India, picked up the announcement about the public lecture at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata, and interviewed me about my tea project.

“An Homage to a Box of Tea: Musings of an Art Historian” (Blog Post)
Title: “An Homage to a Box of Tea: Musings of an Art Historian”
Author: Romita Ray
Abstract: n/a
Date: 8/12/2016
Primary URL: https://www.teabox.com/blog/homage-box-tea-musings-art-historian

“A Moustache in a Teacup” (Blog Post)
Title: “A Moustache in a Teacup”
Author: Romita Ray
Abstract: n/a
Date: 9/1/2016
Primary URL: https://www.teabox.com/blog/moustache-teacup

“Madam Superintendent and Durga Puja in a Tea Garden” (Blog Post)
Title: “Madam Superintendent and Durga Puja in a Tea Garden”
Author: Romita Ray
Abstract: n/a
Date: 11/11/2016
Primary URL: https://www.teabox.com/blog/madam-superintendent-durga-puja-tea-garden

Tigers and Tea (Blog Post)
Title: Tigers and Tea
Author: Romita Ray
Abstract: This post is about tigers and tea within the broader context of imperial history and current children's book illustrations
Date: 06/02/2017
Primary URL: https://www.teabox.com/blog/tigers-tea
Blog Title: Tigers and Tea
Website: teabox.com

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