Scope and Contents
The collection comprises diaries, notebooks, and other manuscript documents concerning the travels of James Wales in India, with a particular focus on antiquities of Poona and the nearby cave temples of Ellora.
Dates
- 1786-1797
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into four series: I. Diaries; II. Cave descriptions and other notes; III. Drawings; IV. Material related to publications by James Wales.
Extent
1 Linear Feet (1 box, 2 volumes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The collection comprises diaries, notebooks, and other manuscript documents concerning the travels of James Wales in India, with a particular focus on antiquities of Poona and the nearby cave temples of Ellora.
Biographical / Historical
"The self-taught British artist James Wales arrived in Bombay in 1791, and immediately began to work on a series of 'Picturesque Prospects' of the city, for which he hired Robert Mabon, an East India Company soldier and draftsman, as an assistant. He published this project in 1795 as Views of the Island of Bombay and its vicinity. In June of 1792, Charles Warre Malet called Wales to Poona to paint portraits and history paintings, and Mabon accompanied him. Wales, like Forbes and Malet, had an interest in cave temples, and in his journal he describes a proposed publication called 'Indian Antiquities,' which would 'contain every excavated work worthy of attention on the West side of India.' He hired several assistants, both British and Indian, including Mabon and Gangaram Chintaman Tambat, for this project. Unfortunately Wales died from the 'Putrid air' inhaled while sketching the cave temples of Salsette before he could finish 'Indian Antiquities,' and Malet commissioned the artist Thomas Daniell to complete it for publication [as Hindoo excavations in the mountain of Ellora]."--Holly Shaffer, Adapting the Eye (2011).
Bibliography
Shaffer, Holly. Adapting the eye, an archive of the British in India: October 11-December 31, 2011, Yale Center for British Art. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2011.
Shaffer, Holly. Grafted arts: art making and taking in the struggle for Western India, 1760-1910. London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2022.
- British -- India
- Cave temples -- India
- Caves -- India
- Daniell, Thomas, 1749-1840
- Diaries
- Ellora Caves (India)
- Gaṅgārāma, active 18th century
- India -- Description and travel
- Mabon, Robert
- Malet, Charles Warre, 1752-1815
- Mumbai (India) -- Description and travel
- Notebooks
- Pune (India) -- Description and travel
- Wales, James, 1746 or 1747-1795
- Title
- Guide to the James Wales archive
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- edited by Francis Lapka
- Date
- 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Yale Center for British Art, Rare Books and Manuscripts Repository
Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts
1080 Chapel Street
P. O. Box 208280
New Haven CT 06520-8280 US
203-432-2814
ycba.rarebooks@yale.edu
Location
1080 Chapel Street
New Haven , CT 06510