Bringing Home the Exotic: Europeans as Foreigners 1670-1840

April 9-December 1, 2007

Curated by Sara Holliday

Would you like to meet a British diplomat who goes to Baghdad to run the consulate and ends up finding the site of ancient Nineveh? A German officer imprisoned in Siberia who writes a bestseller about its native tribes? A French philosopher who spends twelve years doctoring the most notorious of the Mughal Emperors?óplus nine other unusual and fascinating traveler-authors?

This exhibition profiled travel and exploration books by men and women from Western Europe who visited India, the Middle East, Tibet and other distant places. Rare Book Librarian Arevig Caprielian and Events Coordinator Sara Holliday compiled a brief catalog with bibliographic and historical information on the books and their authors.

Additional Reading

• Hulme, Peter, and Tim Youngs, eds. The Cambridge companion to travel writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Keay, John. The honourable company : a history of the English East India Company. New York: Macmillan,1991.
• Leask, Nigel.Curiosity and the aesthetics of travel writing, 1770-1840 : 'from an antique land'. Oxford: Oxford University Press,2002.
• Mottram, R.H.Traders' dream : the romance of the East India Company . New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1939.
• Pratt, Mary Louise.Imperial eyes : travel writing and transculturation. London: Routledge, 1994.
• Sowell, Thomas.Conquests and cultures : an international history . New York: Basic Books, 1998.