Tippoo’s Tiger – a large wooden semi-automaton of a tiger devouring an unlucky European gentleman – is one of the V&A’s most popular exhibits. In the V&A Archive we’ve seen a growing interest in our documentary holdings relating to the history of the India Museum and growth of the Indian Collections. These holdings include acquisition and administration files, inventories and photographs.
The East India Company Museum, Leadenhall Street, London. Engraving from Charles Knight’s ‘London’, vol 5, 1843. You can see Tipu’s Tiger is devouring his quarry on the left hand side. See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.In response to this interest – and to help our visitors identify documents relevant to their research more easily – we’ve uploaded this new subject guide to the V&A Archive homepage. It joins an expanding list of handy guides to popular areas of research into the history of the V&A and its collections, such as Art Referees, suffragettes, international exhibitions and marketing.
Guide to records in the V&A Archive relating to the India Museum and Indian objects, page 1
You can consult these (and other) records in our study room at Blythe House, which is open Tuesdays to Fridays, from 10.00 to 16.30, by appointment. Further details on how to make enquiries and access the archives can be found on our homepage.
If you have ideas for further guides, do let usknow. (Guides on acquisition policies and the arrangement and display of the collections are in the pipeline – keep an eye on our blog for updates!)
