Women, Environment, and Networks of Empire : Elizabeth Gwillim and Mary Symonds in Madras

Understanding the intersection of art, nature, and colonialism in early nineteenth-century Madras through the work of two English women. __Women, Environment, and Networks of Empire__ is the first detailed study of the art and correspondence of Elizabeth Gwillim and her sister Mary Symonds in South India. The book explores what their work reveals about natural history, the natural environment, colonialism, and women’s lives at the turn of the nineteenth century. "Elizabeth Gwillim (1763-1807) and her sister Mary Symonds (1772-1854) produced over two hundred watercolours depicting birds, fish, flowers, people, and landscapes around Madras (now Chennai). The sisters’ detailed letters fill four large volumes in the British Library; their artwork is in the Blacker Wood Natural History Collection of McGill University Library in Canada and in the South Asia Collection in Britain. The first book about their work and lives, Women, Environment, and Networks of Empire asks what these materials reveal about nature, society, and environment in early nineteenth-century South India. Gwillim and Symonds left for India in 1801, following the appointment of Elizabeth’s husband, Henry Gwillim, to the Supreme Court of Madras. Their paintings document, on one hand, the rapidly expanding colonial city of Madras and its population and, on the other, the natural environment and wildlife of the city. Gwillim’s paintings of birds are remarkable for their detail, naturalism, and accuracy. In their studies of natural history, Gwillim and Symonds relied on the expertise of Indian bird-catchers, fishermen, physicians, artists, and translators, contributing to a unique intersection of European and Asian natural knowledge. The sisters’ extensive correspondence demonstrates how women shaped networks of trade and scholarship through exchanges of plants, books, textiles, and foods. In Women, Environment, and Networks of Empire an interdisciplinary group of scholars use the paintings and writings of Elizabeth Gwillim and Mary Symonds to explore natural history, the changing environment, colonialism, and women’s lives at the turn of the nineteenth century."-- Provided by publisher Cover Women, Environment, and Networks of Empire Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One Painting, Collecting, and Observing 1 “Busy in Making Drawings of the Country”: The Madras and Environs Album Case Study 1 “I Have Had My Share of Amusement in Making Them”: Mary Symonds’s Pasteboard Models 2 The Ornithology of Elizabeth, Lady Gwillim Case Study 2 “Curious for Fish”: Ichthyological Watercolours 3 Mosques, Gopurams, Varied Waters, and Stormy Seas: Built and Natural Environments of Early Nineteenth-Century Madras 4 Lady Gwillim’s Botany Case Study 3 Indian Expertise on the Natural World in the Gwillim and Symonds Archives 5 Artistic and Literary Contexts: Ornithology and Natural History Studies in India – The Mughal and Early British Periods Part Two Social Lives, Social Networks, and Material Culture 6 Sir Henry Gwillim: Tender Husband, “Fiery Briton,” and Stalwart Judge 7 “My Things by the Ships Have All Come Safe”: Clothing and Textiles in the Gwillim Letters and Drawings Case Study 4 Lady Gwillim’s China: A Case Study in Global Exchange 8 “There Are as Many Sorts of Mango as of Apples”: The Gwillim Archive and the Emergence of Anglo-Indian Cuisine 9 Elizabeth Gwillim: The Lady as Proto-ethnographer Case Study 5 Of Mimesis and Mockery: The Letters of Elizabeth Gwillim and Mary Symonds 10 Elizabeth Gwillim and Mary Symonds and the World of Women in Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century India Conclusion Bibliography Contributors Index