Dr Jennifer Howes

I’m giving an on-line lecture on Saturday March 7th about East India Company artworks! Joining instructions below.

Decolonising Western museums Last year, I attended a major conference on museums in Europe. Decolonisation was the big topic, and every session had debates about repatriation, provenance research

Great article on “Decolonising Western Museums” by Ganga Rajnee Dissanayaka www.themorning.lk/articles/QjO...

Decolonising the Rescue Narrative: Antiquarian Usage of Amaravati Sculptures in the British Museum Amaravati Stupa was the first Buddhist site in India to be systematically excavated by the British. Its first colonial excavation in 1816–17 led to 51 sculptures being removed from the site by amat...

My new article on Buddhist sculpture from Amaravati has now been published on-line! It will appear in print later this summer, in a special journal issue on “South Asian Collections in European Museums”. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I don't think it is only our job to teach students how to read long novels; it may also be our jobs to teach them how to live without an online surveillance state. To learn without intrusive apps. To swap notes. To write in a book's margins. To exist in their communities in slow, clunky, human ways.

Nizam II on a Hunting Expedition - Rai Venkatachallam - Google Arts & Culture Framed painting in Deccani style with Rai Venkatachallam, the court artist, also the painter of this scene. A royal procession of Asaf Jahi ruler Nizam Ali...

Late 18th Century painting of a royal hunting scene in the planes of Golconda, led by Nizam Ali Khan of Hyderabad. In the painting's top right hand corner, the famous female poet and performer, Mah Laqa Bai Chanda, observes the scene from her palanquin.
g.co/arts/E8r3oEH...

I took this photo of Rajpath, New Delhi, in 1997. It is digitised from a 35 mm slide.

I took this photo or Rajpath, New Delhi, on Tuesday 27 January 2026 (the day after Republic Day) with my phone.

Delhi Rajpath, 1990s and 2026.

Bronze statue of Queen Victoria by George Frampton. Completed in 1901, installed in the gardens in front of Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial Hall.

Bronze statue of Queen Victoria by George Frampton. Completed in 1901, installed in the gardens in front of Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial Hall.

In Kolkata, before Republic Day, Queen Victoria has a bath whether she needs it or not.

Yes! Find out what the statue means to them!!

Statue of Robert Clive by John Tweed, in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. Sculpted in London along with an identical bronze statue of Clive that was installed on the “Clive Steps” in Whitehall, next to the old India Office building.

Statue of Robert Clive by John Tweed, in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. Sculpted in London along with an identical bronze statue of Clive that was installed on the “Clive Steps” in Whitehall, next to the old India Office building.

This marble statue of Robert Clive, the notorious East India Company soldier and crook, has become a favourite place to take photos in the Victoria Memorial Hall Kolkata.

Intermission, Raj Mandir Cinema, Jaipur

Rajasthani puppets moving in procession over a sea of people, Jaipur Lit Fest 2026.

“Sleep Over”. Gilbert & George dressed in matching tweed suits, sleeping on a bed of bones. Great shoes.

Bye-bye, 2025!

A little pug with a pint of lager in a traditional English pub.

Merry Christmas!!!

Yes! Weird, isn’t it?!

Founded in the 1670s. Here’s a map of the territory it covered.

Canada’s first Christmas without the Hudson’s Bay Company From fur-trading outpost to department-store giant, founding a country along the way

‘The royal charter empowered the Hudson’s Bay Company to make laws, wage war and run commerce across… all lands “not already possessed by the subjects of any other Christian Prince or State”.’
Canada’s first Christmas without the Hudson’s Bay Company
economist.com/the-americas...

Santa Claus needs to be decolonised, says museum Brighton and Hove Museums said that Father Christmas and his naughty or nice list were a ‘western binary’ and proposed Mother Christmas to tackle the patriarchy

‘Santa and his naughty or nice list was a “western binary” teaching children that the “coloniser has the power to judge all people”.’ Santa Claus needs to be decolonised, says museum

www.thetimes.com/article/046e...

A tall window on the north side of the British Museum. Inside the window you can see a round sculpture from the Buddhist stupa at Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India. In the 19th Century, over a hundred sculptures from Amaravati were shipped to London by the East India Company. In 1880 they were transferred to the British Museum.

While walking past the British Museum, I saw this Amaravati sculpture, shining like a gold coin. I couldn’t access the gallery & identify it because of a power cut! But here’s a link to a similar sized Amaravati roundel in the BM’s collections www.britishmuseum.org/collection/i...

YouTube video by Koffee With FilmiGaane Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge | Sholay | Amitabh Bachchan | Dharmendra | Kishore Kumar Hit Songs

Dharmendra, you had a great run!! 💔 youtu.be/qRdoJJb_rrU?...

Gold tiger head decorated with rubies, emeralds and diamonds. Four of these decorated the throne of Tipu Sultan of Mysore.

Gold tiger head, slightly larger than a golf ball, decorated with rubies, emeralds & diamonds. From the throne of Tipu Sultan of Mysore. After Tipu’s death in May 1799 the throne was dismantled & its pieces distributed as loot. This piece is from a private collection, now on display @V&A South Ken

When’s TRIP’s next question time?

🎃 Happy Halloween! This appropriately spooky binding comes from a sammelband of works on the guillotine, containing thirteen items on its invention, history, use, and physiological effects.

YouTube video by Reagan Library President Reagan's Radio Address on Free and Fair Trade on April 25, 1987

I’m in Canada right now and it suddenly feels desperately important that everyone listens to this 5 minute speech from beginning to end.
youtu.be/5t5QK03KXPc?...

warburg.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Very excited about this!!

Illustration from folio 115b in the Ni’matnama (“Book of Delights”), a 15th century manuscript from the Sultanate Kingdom of Mandu. British Library, IO ISL.149

500 year old recipe for roasted meat: Dig pit, line with flowers & clay. Place stones in & light a fire. When hot, layer in packets of meat & game birds wrapped in banana leaves. When full, cover with banana leaves & flowers, seal pit, build fire on top, leave overnight. British Library, IO ISL.149.

Can you imagine tasting these for the first time? You’d have thought you’d gone to heaven. It’s the cumin-roasted salt and that final splash of rose water that gets my tummy rumbling.

Yes! Sound good, don’t they?
If you don’t have the musk of the deer you slaughtered, any musk will do.

Samosas being prepared for Sultan Ghiyath Shahi of Mandu. From the "Book of Delights", the Ni'matnama, compiled in around 1500 at the Sultanate Kingdom of Mandu, central India. This manuscript is now in the British Library. IO ISL.149, folio 83b.

500 year old recipe for samosas: Cook minced deer meat in ghee with fenugreek & saffron. Roast some salt & cumin. Add to the meat along with cloves, coriander, musk, minced onion & ginger. Add rose wate. Stuff samosas & fry in sweet smelling ghee until tender. @britishlibrary.bsky.social IO ISL.149

Illustrated folio on page 4b from a 460 year old illustrated book of recipes, the “Book of Delights”, the Ni’matnama of the Sultans of Mandu, 15th Century. In the British Library, IO Islamic,149.

15th c recipe for sweet milk pudding: Buy a black or yellow cow. Feed it sugarcane, grass, cotton seeds, date sugar, cinnamon, coconut, nutmeg & partridge eggs. Milk cow, boil milk, skim cream & strain. Add wheat flour. Fry in ghee with cloves, date sugar & pepper corns. British Library, IO ISL.149.