Grainage-Microscopic Examination, Mysore Sericulture Department

Title: Grainage-Microscopic Examination, Mysore Sericulture Department
Date Created: 1925
Creator: Unknown
Identifier: MS-012-5-1-4-1, Leslie Coleman Papers, Archives at NCBS
Original Location: Mysore, India
Current Location: Archives at NCBS, Bangalore, India
Description: This image is from a 1925 photo album (image no. 14 in the listed archival identifier) from the Mysore Sericulture Department in Mysore state, in India. The album showcases a diversity of images from the sericulture process, starting from the cultivation of silkworms, all the way to the production and packing of raw silk. The image is from a collection of material related to Leslie Coleman, a Canadian entomologist, who was initially hired by the Maharaja of Mysore to solve a pest problem in their areca plantations. During his time, he was instrumental in setting up agricultural practices and education, and also extending the sericulture work in the Mysore state.

The album’s purpose did seem to be a demonstration of the entire process of running a silk farm. We can’t say for certain who is the photographer, or what prompted Coleman to keep this album (the Archives at NCBS does not have similar albums for other farming processes). But the album and Coleman’s collections are indicative of his cross-cultural moves across colonial empires, from Canada to Germany and eventually to Mysore, India. The object also showcases the technologies that had been established before the arrival of Coleman, in conversation with the Japanese in the late 19th century, including bringing in experts and machinery.

This image has an innocuous sounding title, focusing on the 'Grainage-Microscopic Examination' that is integral to sericulture. But we also see the emergence of other societal themes. A group of men sit on chairs and peer at the microscopes; children and women sit on the floor tending to preliminary steps; and a supervisor-like man oversees the examination. This fragment prompts questions around the hierarchy of science, and brings to fore layers of gender, class, caste and labour that anchor sericulture work.
Credit: MS-012-5-1-4-1, Leslie C. Coleman Papers, Archives at NCBS.
Link: https://catalogue.archives.ncbs.res.in/repositories/2/archival_objects/9839
Contributor: Venkat Srinivasan, Archives at NCBS and Co-Director, Milli Archives Foundation