America Kolkata Connect Presentation Final.pptx

America – Calcutta Connect
an exclusive presentation by Prof. Aloke Kumar on
U. S – Kolkata Connection
for U.S Consulate General Historic Society
Lincoln Room. American Centre
16th. June 2017

The history of the American Calcutta
Connect began around 1778.
American merchants had begun
trading in India in 1778 when Lord
Cornwallis extended the opportunity.
It was a critical time for the newly
independent America. Being cut off
from the West Indies and deprived of
their traditional market, they were on
the look for a new opportunity for
trading. The Napoleonic wars came
their way to replace Europe’s East
India trade.
Calcutta in 1775, the ship Hydra, jointly owned by the
Americans and the English.

The seeds of the Napoleonic
Wars were sowed around 1778
and was a continuation of the
Revolutionary Wars, which
broke out in 1792 during the
French Revolution. Initially,
French power rose quickly as
the armies of Napoleon
conquered much of Europe.
The Napoleonic Wars were ere
a series of major global
conflicts pitting the French
Empire, led by Napoleon,
against an array of European
combine . The wars completely
changed the course of world
trade.
Battle of Austerlitz. Painting by François Gérard

The wars kept all British ships
busy in territorial defense. The
European colonial powers were
in constant conflict around
Indian and Atlantic oceans.
America, being a neutral nation,
held a strategic position to
exploit seaborne trading across
troubled seas.
American East Indiaman at anchor in Calcutta harbour in
1794. Painting. Oil on Canvas. Balthazar Solvyns.

Soon after the United States won its war of
independence, American private merchants
were freed from British restrictions on trade
and could send ships to India. Merchant
mariners from eastern ports, including
Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, New York,
and Salem, set sail to purchase goods
directly from India, especially cotton and
silk textiles, sugar, ginger, and raw materials.
They offered silver or bills of exchange and
brought a few commodities that were
marketable in India – lumber, naval stores,
and even wines purchased en route. These
merchants also took part in the profitable
business of carrying freight between ports
in Asia. Some, like Benjamin Carpenter,
made detailed notes and drawings to guide
those who would follow.
Benjamin Carpenter. Oil on canvas
1780 Peebody Essex Museum Salem.

President George Washington, on
November 19, 1792, nominated Benjamin
Joy of Newbury Port as the first American
Consul to Calcutta.
Joy, however, reached Kolkata only in April
1794. He was never recognized as Consul
by the British East India Company but was
permitted to reside here as a Commercial
Agent . Despite this rather inauspicious
beginning, Benjamin Joy's arrival was the
beginning of a long official American
relationship with Calcutta --- and, indeed,
with all of India .
Engraving of Calcutta in 1792. Tank Square. William Bailey.
Painting . Oil on Canvas. Believed to be of Ambassador Joy.
Courtesy Library of Congress. Washington DC.

In 1806, within some years America had
imported goods from Calcutta worth at least
three million dollars. Calcutta was the most
active Indian port for their commerce.
Americans in India never established a
commercial house as they did in China. Nor
did they use the European agency houses.
Instead they made use of the services of the
Bengali businessmen known as ‘Banias’, or
the Indian brokers. The Bania is an
occupational community of merchants,
bankers, money-lenders, dealers in grains or
in spices, and in modern times numerous
commercial enterprises. The term is used in
a wider sense in Bengal than it is elsewhere
in India, where it is applied to specific caste

Among them Ramdulal Dey was the first and
most famous Bania connected with the American
trade. Ramdulal Dey, the millionaire Bengal
merchant of late 18th and early 19th centuries,
was the foremost name in the chronicle of Indo-
American maritime trade. Trading in Calcutta was
one of the very important mercantile experiences
of America during her early phase of modern
globalization. Ramdulal Dey became a household
name among the contemporary American
business houses. He exhibited the greatest
activity and fascination in alluring the trade of the
America to the harbours of Bengal. The bulk of
American business passed through Ramdulal’s
hands. He became an authority on trade in
American commercial circles.

When the United States gained its
independence, American and Indian
aspirations for self-determination
became linked in a web of
connections. In 1801, a group of
grateful clients presented Ramdulal
Dey, Calcutta’s leading agent for the
American trade, with a life-sized oil
painting of George Washington, the
military leader of the American
Revolution and first president of the
new nation. Prominently displayed in
Dey’s North Calcutta mansion, the
painting stood as a reminder that
colonies could earn their freedom.
At home of Ramdulala Dey in Calcutta.

From 1790 American trade with British
India grew fast. Mostly the merchant
houses of Boston, Salem, Philadelphia,
Providence, Marblehead and New York
sent their ships regularly to buy Bengal
goods. Every house had its own Banias
stationed in Calcutta.
Annually 30 to 50 ships sailed to
Calcutta, carrying cargo of iron, lead,
brandy, Madeira and other wines, fish,
spermaceti candles, mackerel, beef,
beer, ice, variety of Europeans articles,
tar, large and small spars. On their return
the ships took varied types of Bengal
goods, including tea, sugar, indigo,
linseed, saltpeter, gunny bags, and most
importantly, textiles.
Scene along the Salem waterfront c.1770-80
Courtesy: Peabody Museum, Salem.

The Americans carried on the bulk of
their trade through the Indian
brokers. It was not simply because of
economic reasons they did it, but for
the strategic advantage of having the
highly competent and experienced
Calcutta Banias to look after their
interest.
The early Americans had treated the
Indians with informality, humour and
respect. The full trade of American
business passed through Bania
community. So great was the
confidence that for the first time in
the history of Indian commerce, the
merchants of America dispensed with
European Agents in Bengal altogether.
Seated on (from left) Rajendra Dutt, Doorgaprasad Ghose, and Raj
Kissen Mitter. Clay models. Courtesy: Peabody Museum, Salem.

Rajen Dutt . Calcutta Bania (clay
model) Courtesy: Peabody Museum
With the East India Company background, the
Banias at Calcutta were already reputed
professionals.
A small number of Banias took advantages of
the situation and became specialists in the
American trade. Ramdulal Dey, Rajen
Dutta,Asutosh Dey and Promathanath Dey,
Rajindra Datta, Kalidas Datta, Rajkrishna and
Radhakrishana Mitra and others .

One of the American merchants
fondly dedicated a vessel to ‘Ram
Dolloll’ and named after him. The
vessel sailed carrying Ramdulal’s
consignment to Calcutta thrice
during his lifetime. Among the ships
he owned, Kamala, and Bimala were
named after his two daughters, and
the ship David Clerk was named
after one his American business
partners and a personal friend.
American trade brought about ‘a
new dimension to the cultural and
commercial milieu of the city’. The
American way of conducting the
business helped in fostering some
sort of cultural intercourse between
Calcutta and America.
Salem Harbor. Originally served as a sign over the door of the
first East India Marine Hall. Oil. 1803. Courtesy: Peabody
Museum

The Peabody Museum, Salem and the
Essex institute in Massachusetts still
hold nine portraits of Banias in their
collections and these are the potent
survivors of such relationships.
The portraits were commissioned by the
Banias for presentation to the
Americans and business associates.
The practice of commissioning and
exchanging portraits is an interesting
indication of cordial relationships as
between equals.
Rajender Dutt, 1850. Opaque
watercolor on ivory By unknown Indian
artist. .Courtesy: Peabody
Museum.Museum, Salem

It was in the year 1780 that Ramdulal
Dey , the first Bengali entrepreneur
started Durga Puja at his home in
Calcutta which was attended by the
American traders. Upon Ramdulal’s
death the tradition is maintained by his
illustrious sons . The puja continues till
date and he is revered and
remembered. The puja is still held at
“Ramdulal Nibas”, 67E Beadon Street .
Here I am seen with a member of the present
generation, my student from the University attending
the Puja.

Jacob Crowninshield (1770-1808) was a
ship captain and a U.S. Representative
from Massachusetts. Jacob
Crowninshield came from a family of
shippers that ran the firm of George
Crowninshield and Sons of Salem,
Massachusetts. Jacob was one of five
brothers, all in command of ships in
trade with India. George Crowninshield
and Sons, whose vessels had made
sustained efforts after 1795 to break into
the East Indian trades. The family was
particularly successful in undercutting
the British domination by exploiting their
contacts with the Bengali Banias.
Robert Cutler Hinckley (1853 - 1941) -
This image is from the United States
Library of Congress

Ramsoonder Mitter. A black& white
copy of an Oil Painting on Canvas.
Library of Congress. Washington D C.
When Richard Crowninshield of Salem arrived
in Calcutta in the early spring of 1796, he was
met by a banian named Ramsoonder Mitter.
Mitter handed him a letter of introduction and
recommendation from a friend of
Crowninshield’s, J. Hodges. In it, Hodges called
Mitter ‘‘one of the best Banians in Calcutta.’’
American merchants tended to see India as
stepping stones to wealth, honour, and
comfort. That perspective likely influenced
their perceptions of the country and their
indigenous business partners. Some Indo–
American mercantile relationships would even
verge on friendship.

On April 12, 1796, Captain Jacob
Crowninshield arrived in New York
Harbour on a trading ship called
America. On board was a two-year-
old female elephant the captain had
purchased in India for $450. She was
the first elephant to ever come to
America. Here we see it being loaded
in the Calcutta Port.
The first account of the elephant in
the U.S. appeared in The Argus and
Green Leaf Advertiser, which in New
York at the corner of Beaver Street
and Broadway. Exactly three years
later.

American merchants had begun
trading in India in 1778 when
Lord Cornwallis extended the
opportunities to them, but
transporting and trading in ice
was a different matter altogether.
It was 1833 and voyage time
across the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans normally took four
months. But in the first few
decade of the 19th century,
innovations in the ice-harvesting
business made surprising
improvement with shipping.ch v

Some of these were largely made by Nathaniel
Jervis Wyeth. Wyeth invented a twin-bladed,
horse-drawn ice-cutter, which meant that ice
sheets could be cut up into big squares and
then pried out with iron bars. This saved time
and increased the productivity of men and
horses. These giant cubes could also be packed
tightly to quell melting. Wyeth experimented
in methods of insulating the ice on board
ships, with saw dust or tan, a product of
tanneries to reduce the melting inevitable
during a long voyage.
And here we see an US serviceman negotiating
a price for an ice-freezer from a young vendor
in a stall along a Calcutta street in 1945.

On May 12, 1833, the ship
Tuscany, sailed from Boston for
Calcutta, carrying 180 tons of ice.
When it docked at Calcutta on
September 6, the ship still had 100
tons of ice in its hold. People who
gathered were amazed at the
giant, ice cubes as they were
unloaded and were described as
“crystal blocks of Yankee
coldness”. A local who reached
forward to touch the ice, believed
he had been “burnt”, considerably
alarming the other onlookers.

In the early phase of globalization, nineteenth-
century cosmopolitan thinkers in America and
India sought to articulate a universally
inclusive cosmology, recognizing the common
core of all religions. Rammohun Roy, for
example, seeking spiritual renewal for a new
age of enlightenment, turned to the
fundamental universalism embedded in
ancient Sanskrit scriptures. He also looked for
inspiration in the teachings of other religions.
In dialogue with American Christian
Unitarians, he found especially congenial
ideas, and the Unitarians, in turn, published
Roy’s essays in prominent American
periodicals.
Portrait of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, 1833
Oil on canvas by Rembrandt Peale
(American, 1778-1860)
Peabody Museum, Salem

The second as we all know was
Swami Vivekananda who attended
the Parliament of the World's
Religions in1893, which was an
attempt to create a global dialogue
of faiths.
The rest as we say is history, as
Swami addressed the gathering as
“Sisters and Brothers of America, it
fills my heart with joy unspeakable
to rise in response to the warm and
cordial welcome which you have
given us”. Swamiji became famous
overnight and was a huge attraction
and went on to win American
hearts.
Swami Vivekananda, in 1893, at the Parliament of
the Worlds Religion.(Photo: Eliot Bahai Archives)

Swami Vivekananda, in 1894, with Sarah Jane
Farmer, the founder of the Green Acre Conferences,
and guests in Maine. (Photo: Eliot Bahai Archives)
Swami Vivekananda, who bowled
over Americans at the world’s first
Parliament of Religions went on to
become a pioneering architect of
Vedic philosophy in the U.S. He
went on lecture tour of America
and made considerable
mark on the lives of ordinary
Americans from all walks of life.

It was during the lecture tour that a poster of
Swamiji was printed in 1893 by the Goes
Lithographic Co., Chicago after the Parliament
of Religions. It was pasted throughout the city,
like we have people sticking cinema poster on
the wall and free space, to draw people’s
attention to separate discourses by Swamiji.
The original photograph from which the poster
was printed belonged to Hollister Sturges with
whom Swamiji stayed in Chicago.
Vivekananda was not aware of the printing of
the poster and came to know about it much
latter when many of his immediate disciples
wanted to have it autographed. When Swamiji
returned to India he did not carry back a single
poster. It was left to Sister Nivedita to organise
and have some posters sailed to the shores of
India.

This image of Swami Vivekananda,
is very common in Bengali
household. The original of which
is 119 years old. It is there in
many living and puja rooms in
India, with little knowledge that it
is a poster in the real sense. Even
with the name of the star and a
descriptor, "Swami Vivekananda.
The Hindoo Monk of India." Today
there are posters in our children’s
room of rock stars but this poster
adorned the rooms in India and
America much before the fad.

American connect with the Swami continues. It
is more than a century that Swami
Vivekananda traveled to America. His famous
speech at the Parliament of World Religions in
Chicago in 1893, made him very popular in
America and several of prominent Americans
including author J D Salinger, philanthropist
John D Rockefeller and the legendary inventor
Nikola Tesla were greatly influenced by his
teachings.
As part of the series of after-talk, he visited the
First Unitarian Church of Oakland, where he
gave a speech in the year 1900.
The First Unitarian Church preserves the
wooden chair where Swami Vivekananda sat as
he waited to deliver his speech.
On special days the Church offers prayers and
floral tribute to this chair.

Rabindranath Tagore’s first sustained experience
of America was not New York or San Francisco, but
the farming university town of Urbana, Illinois. He
went there in 1912, to visit his son Rathindranath,
studying at the University of Illinois. Father
Rabindranath had wanted his son not to study
literature or the arts at a place like Oxford or
Cambridge but rather agricultural science in the
service of what Tagore hoped would turn into a
program for village development.
Tagore actually made five trips to the US, starting
in 1912, and ending in 1930. Tagore underscored
the critical importance of freedom, broad-minded
education, and universal humanism as a moral
compass in an age overwhelmed by industrial
growth and imperial ambition. Tagore found much
to admire in American pragmatism.

Indian educators contributed to the
American scene in equally diverse
ways. As early as the 1850s, Joguth
Chunder Gangooly, who converted to
Unitarianism, traveled from Calcutta
to Boston. Dismayed by American
misconceptions about India, he wrote
Life and Religion of the Hindoos to
provide deeper insight into his
homeland. In the early twentieth
century. His book is much in demand
even today and here is the latest
edition.

02 April 1942 - Arrival of US Troops
World War II brought new complexities,
boosting freedom struggles across the
globe and stationing American troops in
India. Franklin Delano Roosevelt became
the first American president to openly
support Indian independence, though he
did so cautiously in deference to the critical
alliance between the United States and
Great Britain. In 1942, the American
soldiers arrived in Calcutta.

India was a major aerial supply route,
for the American military mission that
came to be known as ‘flying over the
Hump’, a term of reference for flying
over the Indian Himalayas. Calcutta
because of its proximity to China and
Burma, was as an important hub in
execution of the military operations. In
fact, the Red Road in Calcutta had
been used an emergency runway for
operation Hump. It's Hard To Believe
but Air Force Planes Landed on Red
Road used a runway.

Wartime Calcutta was a huge military
transit camp as the Allies engaged the
Japanese in Burma. The Maidan boiled
with activity as vast amounts of military
ordnance poured in from America for
Burma and nationalist China, supplied
via the Ledo Road and the Herculean
efforts of the East Bengal and Assam-
Bengal Railways.
The Ellenborough Polo Ground
(between the south side of Fort William
and Hastings) and the land between Red
Road, Dufferin and Mayo Roads, were
vast military vehicle parks. The 3.7”
Vickers guns of a Royal Artillery heavy
anti-aircraft battery banged away at
raiding Japanese bombers from the roof
of the Indian Museum.

The Willys MB commonly known
as a Jeep or jeep was formally used
by the U.S. Army. There was also the
Army Truck, 1/4 ton, 4x4) and the
Ford GPW ,four-wheel drive utility
vehicles that were manufactured
during World War II.
Produced from 1941 to 1945,
it evolved post-war into the civilian
Jeep CJ, and inspired both an entire
category of recreational and several
generations of military light
utility vehicles. The United States
Army deployed four-wheel drive
trucks in that war, supplied by Four
Wheel Drive Auto (FWD) and the
Thomas B. Jeffery Company.

Then there was the mammoth
apartment hotel modeled around
the American motels for U.S. Army
officers. Known to the many
thousands of transient and locally
based officers as a social center, it
had one of the most elaborately
decorated bars of any officers club
along with a theater. Today it is
known as Karnani Estates, where
much later the bottling plant of
Coca Cola was housed.

Calcutta also had the 142 U S
Military Hospital. It served the
military for the whole of India
and Burma. Here we see Richard
Beard, an US Army Lieutenant
who was a Psychologist with the
hospital.
Calcutta also had the Air Base
with the Headquarters and living
area was in the Bengal Mint
buildings just off Diamond
Harbor Road .

02 April 1942 - Arrival of US Troops
One of the less remembered and more
unusual effects of the war were the large
number of American military personnel which
it brought to the city. They were mostly
(although by no means all) white like the
British, but very different in style. They had
more money, where used to a different life
style and living standard back home and most
of all they had a very different attitude to
India, the Indians and their culture. Unlike the
British the Americans mixed freely and were a
regular sight in the streets of Calcutta. Others
found them refreshingly efficient and modern,
and lapped up everything they brought with
them, from their money and materials which
swamped the city, to their Magazines, Movies,
Swing & Jazz.

Here we see them outside a stoic
British establishment Hamilton & Co
where in the pavement some boys
attempt to sell 'precious‘ stones to
American Gis in Calcutta in 1945 .
A popular rendezvous of the
Americans was the Corner bookstalls
which stood at Chowringhee Road
where Peerless Inn has come up. The
stall specialized in pulp literature,
novels , adventure tales and books
related to the charm of India.

The New American Kitchen was
a popular restaurant, owned by a
Portuguese, and served
American Steak much before you
can say "Teek hai".
It served American Chop Suey, a
favourite of the American
soldiers American chop suey is
an American pasta dish popular
in Calcutta at that time. Despite
its name, it has only a very
distant relation to the American
Chinese cuisine.

The Americans in Calcutta
behaved freely as is evident from
the many photographs . They
moved round the city in hired
taxis or even hand-pulled
rickshaws.
It is this image which the people
of Calcutta carries : friendly and
maybe responsible for the city
historians not taking them
seriously.

One of the reason could be the
carefully crafted Booklets provided to
them. The American Red Cross
Command published a Guide Book of
Calcutta, Agra, Delhi, Karachi and
Bombay Printed and Published from
Calcutta containing information
relevant to the cities. Their customs,
habits and ways of the residents in
these cities.

The Information and Education Branch
of the United States Army also
published a booklet in 1945 titled The
Calcutta Key during World War II. It
was an US Army Guide to Calcutta. The
small booklet provides both cultural
information and advice on living abroad
in the city. The booklet carried
humorous illustrations of Does and
Don’t.
One very humorously forbids them to
admire returning damsel from their
morning dip at the Ganges.

It is generally believed that the
Americans in Calcutta dovetailed
with the British to enjoy a common
social life. Contrary to this they
carved a separate life style. The
Amcross: The American Red Cross
Club was opened in 1943. A
building was requisitioned and
remodeled. Staffs were appointed.
In charge of activities was Ruth
Renner who worked with many of
the men in this area before she
organized a similar club in the
theater at Karnania Mansion.

Amcross held Christmas Bazar at the
club and every year around Rs. 11,000
worth of Christmas packets were US
bound as the army men send home
presents. The Bazar were sponsored
by the men's American Club of
Calcutta, many volunteered their
services.
Participating organizations and
individuals were: Bengal Home
Industries, Good Companions, Bengal
Stores, Indian Red Cross, M. A.
Mondal, Darjeeling Tea Co., YMCA,
Women's Home Industries and
Statesman.

Many of the photographs used are by
Clyde Waddell. He was an American
military photographer known for his
photographs of Calcutta in 1945
Waddell was chief photographer for
the Houston Press before entering the
US Army and coming to the India-
Burma Theatre in November 1943,
where he was attached to the Public
Relations Staff of Southeast Asia
Command 'with the express purpose of
acting as personal press photographer
for Supreme Commander Admiral Lord
Louis Mountbatten.‘
On his return he published an album.

In the 1880s, Lockwood de Forest, mindful
of the growing fashion for handmade
imports, collaborated with Indian
craftsperson to create furniture for homes
in the United States. At the 1893 World’s
Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a
presentation of Indian products and art
enticed Americans into a setting of
oriental splendor. These were shipped
from Calcutta for the art wares to be
featured at the popular world fairs that
became a fixture of American life on a
regular basis.
Here we see Lockwood
himself dressed in Indian
clothes with one of the
creation.

At a time when Calcutta took pride in
the British Prints of Thomas & William
Daniell my father, the first antiquarian of
Calcutta, imported American prints of
Currier & Ives. Whilst the prints of
British Artists were in limited edition
and thus expensive, the American prints
were mass produced and cheap. The
Bengali middle class and the merchant
class took to these prints and made it
their own.
For more information on my father
Nirmal Chandra Kumar Google
The Antiquarian of Calcutta.

Currier and Ives was a successful
American printmaking firm headed by
Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) and James
Merritt Ives (1824–1895) based in New
York City from 1834 to 1907. The prolific
firm produced prints from paintings by
fine artists as black and white lithographs
that were hand colored. Lithographic
prints could be reproduced quickly and
purchased inexpensively, and the firm
called itself "the Grand Central Depot for
Cheap and Popular Prints" and advertised
its lithographs as "colored engravings for
the people". Calcutta constituted one of
their major market.

The Calcutta merchants and the new rich
middle class decorated their homes with
these inexpensive prints. The prints
depicted a variety of images of American
life, including winter scenes, horse-racing
images, portraits of people, and pictures
of ships, sporting events, patriotic, and
historical events, including ferocious
battles of the American Civil War, the
building of cities and railroads, and
Lincoln's assassination. With theses prints
Americana entered the Calcutta homes.

The Discovery of India was written by India's
first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his
imprisonment in 1942-1946 at the Ahmednagar
Fort prison. However after coming out of jail he
tried to publish the book but failed due to
political pressure from the British. In his
desperation he handed over the manuscript to
D K Gupta of Signet Press in Calcutta with the
hope that Calcutta being the epicenter of such
publications, the book will be released. It was
left to Gupta to send the manuscript to an
obscure publisher by the name of John Day &
Co. for the book to be published from New York
in 1946. When copies of the book landed in
Calcutta port they were burnt by the British.
The Second edition and the first Indian edition
was published by Signet Press from Calcutta
with the cover design by Satyajit Ray, after
independence in 1947.

Uday Shankar, brother of sitar master Ravi
Shankar, initiated modern dance in India
by blending local traditions and Western
styles. Uday was the first Indian dancer to
perform in prominent American venues,
and leading American impresario Sol
Hurok managed his highly acclaimed U.S.
tour in the 1930s.
Modern dance pioneer Ruth St. Denis first
saw Indian performers of Uday Shankar at
Coney Island in New York. She was
instantly enthralled. Experimenting with
poses from Uday Shankar’s Dance Ballet,
St. Denis started her ‘Hindu’-style
performances in America and eventually
in India.

Satyajit Ray himself has confessed that he
was influenced by John Ford and Frank
Capra to name a few.
Later in his Oscar Speech he commented :
“I have learned everything I've learned
about the craft of cinema from the making
of American films. I've been watching
American films very carefully over the
years and I loved them for what they
entertain, and then later loved them for
what they taught. So, I express my
gratitude to the American cinema, to the
motion picture association who have given
me this award and who have made me feel
so proud. Thank you very, very much.”
March 30, 1992.
Ray in New York in 1981 with
Marlon Brando

Metropolitan Building at Esplanade, which
earlier housed the American Library. Satyajit
Ray spent his time here during his D J
Keymers days where he poured over books
on art and cinema. It is here that he met
Bansi Chandragupta in the 1940s who
became his Art Director. He also met
Chidananda Dasgupta during viewing of
American Classics and together they founded
the Calcutta Film Society and later he became
a noted film critic. Subho Tagore the nephew
of Rabindranath Tagore stayed in the same
building and used the library often.
The USIS as it was fondly called with it’s
library and adjacent audiovisual room was a
hub for all intellectuals of the city.

Calcutta also gave birth to many American
authors. One was Richard Beard, an US Army
Lieutenant. He wrote the book : From Calcutta
with Love: The World War II Letters of Richard
and Reva Beard . Richard Beard, an Army
psychologist assigned to the 142nd General
Hospital in Calcutta, dealt daily with emotional
trauma. While American and British soldiers
hacked their way through dense tropical forests
to build the supply route, Beard immersed
himself in the internal jungles of those he
treated. A pillar to the men he served, Beard was
an astute listener and observer, pleased to be
playing his part. But his own pillar was his wife,
Reva, teaching school half a world away in
Findlay, Ohio. In daily letters to Reva, he poured
out not only his observations of life in India but
also his own longing and passion.

Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-
born scientist, inventor, engineer and
innovator who patented the first
practical telephone. Bell was awarded
the first U.S. patent for the telephone
in 1876 which saw the mass
production of telephone instruments .
The American Bell telephone Co
exported the instrument to Calcutta.
The first advertisement appeared in
The Statesman Calcutta.

King Gillette safety razor with replaceable
blade was exported to Calcutta in 1905.
King Camp Gillette was an American
businessman. He invented a best selling
version of the safety razor. Several models
were in existence before Gillette's design.
Gillette's innovation was the thin,
inexpensive, disposable blade of stamped
steel. Gillette is widely credited with
inventing the so-called razor and blades
business model during the 1890s, where
razors were sold cheaply to increase the
market for blades . Here is a vintage
Advertisement for Gillette Safety Razor
published in The statesman, Calcutta in
1904.

The Americans brought the pie safe to
Calcutta. Also called pie cupboard, kitchen
safe, and meat safe, is a piece of furniture
designed to store pies and other food
items. This was a normal household item
and an important part of the American
household starting in the 1700s and
continuing through the century. A notable
pie safe maker was the American
industrialist and founder of PPG Industries
(then known as the Pittsburgh Plate Glass
Company), Captain John Baptiste Ford,
who made tin pie safes and sold them
throughout the United States also
exported it to Calcutta.

Frigidaire was founded by the Guardian
Frigerator Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
and developed the first self-contained
refrigerator in 1916. In 1918, William C.
Durant, a founder of General Motors,
personally invested in the company and in
1919, it adopted the name Frigidaire. The
brand was so well known in the refrigeration
field in the early-to-mid-1900s that many
Americans called any refrigerator (of whatever
brand) a Frigidaire. The brand Frigidaire came
into existence in the year 1918 when General
Motors purchased the Guardian Frigerator
Company, which was formed to manufacture
refrigerators designed by Alfred Mellowes.
Here it’s noteworthy that the first electric
refrigerator went up for sale in 1913 and it
landed in Calcutta in 1950.

Dodge is an American brand of cars,
minivans, and sport utility vehicles
manufactured by FCA US LLC
(formerly known as Chrysler Group
LLC), based in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
Dodge vehicles then include the
lower-priced badge variants of mini
vans which was exported to Calcutta
to be used as public buses. Here we
see a fleet standing at the Bus Bay in
Howrah Station.
Chrysler-badged vehicles as well as
performance cars, though for much
of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's
mid-priced brand above Plymouth.

Coca-Cola came to Calcutta in the year
1956. Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft
drink produced by The Coca-Cola
Company. Originally intended as a
patent medicine, it was invented in the
late 19th century by John Pemberton
and was bought out by businessman
Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics
led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the
world soft-drink market throughout the
20th century. It is interesting to note
that the bottling plant was started in
Calcutta in Karnania Estate on Lower
Circular road which had originally
housed the apartments for the Gis.

Rouyer Guillet & Cie, Fine Champagne
was introduced to Calcutta by the
Americans. The first shipment
came through the military, which is
indicated by a “US NAVY” stamp which
indicates it was shipped through those
channels. Latter it was available easily
through the General Store . Here we
see the signage outside a well known
store in Calcutta at the crossing of Park
Street.

Pianos had to be imported since they
were not manufactured in India. Even
when imported they were unaffordable
even for the rich , with stiff import
duties and many other barriers. So the
American organ - a free-reed
instrument which could double up was
imported to Calcutta in early 1900s. In
the initial years Dwarkin and Calcutta
Piano Shop sold the American Organ.

Lt. Colonel Gamble, arrived in Calcutta from
China with twenty cents, a package of
Chesterfield cigarette which then costed
about twelve cents at Hastings Mill where
an American Contingent was posted. Taken
over by the Americans it was remodeled
with offices and luxurious quarters for top
army brass It was a transient way station for
soldiers assigned to bases in Assam Valley
or in China.
Quote from The Immoral Reverend
By Robert H. Rimmer.
The Americans introduced us Calcuttans to
popular cigarettes like Camel. Lucky Strike
and brands of Philip Morrison.

"Calcutta" is an instrumental version by
American band leader and TV host Lawrence
Welk created in 1961 by Dot Records album.
Calcutta! was a chart hit, the most successful
of Welk's career, and the only tango-based
recording to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
singles chart.
The tune was written in 1958 by the composer
Heino Gaze. The original title was "Tivoli
Melody", but it was re-titled several times,
until it became known as "Calcutta, which
made reference to the Indian city of Calcutta.
The American songwriting team of Paul Vance
and Lee Pockriss later wrote English lyrics,
celebrating the charms of the "ladies of
Calcutta."1960.

The Metro cinema hall was built by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, an American
Production Company, based in Beverly
Hills, United States in 1934 to promote
their films in Calcutta, which was among
the most important cities. Famous as an
elite city, Calcutta had a large market for
Hollywood films. The theater was
designed by Thomas W. Lamb, a New
York-based theater designer. It was
inaugurated in 1935. The first film
shown in this cinema was Way Out
West. The Metro was the most modern
of the cinemas in Calcutta. The Metro
cinema was a favourite among filmgoers
during the Golden Ages of the 40's to
70's.

This Metro cinema hall was so
popular and the architecture based
on Art deco so captivating that a
poster to promote tourism in
Calcutta was created by the famous
American Art Deco poster artist
Derek Walker. Art Deco, sometimes
simply referred to as Deco, is a style
of visual arts, architecture and
design. During its heyday, Art Deco
represented luxury, glamour,
exuberance, and faith in social and
technological progress.

The Americans loved Calcutta and even
made a film. Calcutta is a 1947
American film noir crime film directed
by John Farrow, and written and
produced by Seton I. Miller. The drama
features Alan Ladd, Gail Russell and
William Bendix.
Calcutta had frequently been in the
news with reports of the war and
Paramount decided it would make an
ideal setting for a film. It was based on
an original story by Seton Miller who
also acted as screenwriter and
producer. Please note the year of
release.

From cinema to magic, in virtually
all areas of entertainment, artists
and audiences in the United
States and India found inspiration
and enjoyment in each other’s
productions. In the early
twentieth century, America’s
leading magician, Howard
Thurston, visited India and came
to Calcutta to see its famed
practitioners of illusion and from
this experience crafted his own
version of the Indian ‘rope-trick.’
He performed at Empire Theatre .

The famed Oscar nominee, Merle
Oberon, opted to conceal her Calcutta
origins and school days at Calcutta’s La
Martinière to become a leading lady in
Hollywood. She travelled to the United
States to make films for Samuel
Goldwyn. She was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress for her
performance in The Dark Angel (1935).
A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial
injuries that could have ended her
career, but she soon followed this with
her most renowned performance in
Wuthering Heights (1939).

During World War II, in 1945 Teddy
Weatherford, the Chicago Jazzman led a
band in Calcutta, where he made radio
broadcasts for the U. S. Armed Forces Radio
Service Calcutta.
Later at the Winter Garden, an open-air
nightclub at Calcutta’s Grand Hotel,
hundreds of young bodies moved to his
music. There were American GIs in crisp tan
uniforms,, and Anglo-Indian girls looking for
love, all illuminated by lanterns strung from
the columns and arches that ringed the
dance floor.

In 1990, the Tercentenary year of
Calcutta , Susan Bean of the
Peabody Museum of Salem
mounted an exhibition ,Yankee
Traders and Indian Merchants,
1785 – 1865. The exhibition for
the first time showcased
American traders and their
experiences in Calcutta.
This is for the first time that
Calcutta woke up to its American
Connection.

Life Style
Acknowledgement
Peabody Essex Museum. USA
Library of Congress. Washington D C
Collection of Lt. Nirmal Chandra Kumar. Antiquarian
Library. University of Calcutta
Library. Asiatic Society . Calcutta
National Library. Calcutta
ABP Library Calcutta
The Statesman Library. Calcutta

Life Style
Permission
This presentation has been exclusively mounted
on the behest of Andrew F Ryan , Vice Consul.
Consulate General U S A.
The author wishes to extend courtesy to the Consulate
by extending permission for presentation and publication
of the material, if it so wishes, with due acknowledgement
to the author.

Life Style
Copyright
Unless otherwise noted, all of the material on this web site is
Copyright © 2016-2017 by Prof. Aloke Kumar. All rights reserved.
No part of this web site may be reproduced, published, distributed,
displayed, performed, copied or stored for public or private use in
any information retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by
any mechanical, photographic or electronic process,
including electronically or digitally on the Internet or World Wide Web,
or over any network, or local area network, without written permission
of the author.

George Washington, After Gilbert Stuart.
Engraved by William Smith, 1876,
Executed by H B Hall’s Sons Engravers,
New York, from the collection of my
father Late Nirmal Chandra Kumar, the
antiquarian of Calcutta. I would like to
hand it over to Hon'ble Craig L. Hall,
Consul General, Consulate General of
The United States of America

The Declaration of
Independence, After John
Trumbull, 1876. Engraved by
Waterman Lilly Ormsby to Mr.
Andrew F Ryan.

I would like to mention that I had the
honour to be invited by Mr. Andrew
F Ryan to visit the premise of the
Consulate at Ho Chi Minh Sarani to
view the collection of materials
related to this subject . I take the
liberty to request all of you to help
with the collection by presenting
materials relating to the American-
Calcutta connect. These will be
preserved. Do not think of the
condition which I can, on behalf of
the historical society, share with you
that it will be taken care of by the
Consulate.

I suggest that the Historical
Society mounts an exhibition of
this historical connection. It
would contain materials in the
collection of the Consulate,
from this presentation and any
other gifted or given on loan.
I on my part am ready to
contribute and even be the
curator.

Prof. Aloke Kumar is an accomplished communications
professor, author, editor and scholar. He is a Faculty
Member at the University of Calcutta, in the
Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.
He is also a Visiting Lecturer at, Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) and holds affiliate faculty
positions in various Universities, among them are
Ramakrishna Vidyamandir, Institute of Mass
Communications, New Delhi, and International
Management Institute, Calcutta.
Having being brought up amidst the large collection of
books at home, as his father was an antiquarian, he
has got a natural flair for history and writes on varied
related subjects.
E-mail: prof.alokekumar@gmail.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/prof.alokekumar

America Kolkata Connect Presentation Final.pptx

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to America Kolkata Connect Presentation Final.pptx

Similar to America Kolkata Connect Presentation Final.pptx (20)

More from Prof.Aloke Kumar

More from Prof.Aloke Kumar (8)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

America Kolkata Connect Presentation Final.pptx