James J. White (Carnegie Mellon University)

updated: Tue,  9 Jul 1996 11:31:42 -0400 (EDT)

James J. White
Curator of Art & Principal Research Scholar
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3890

Phones:  (412) 268-2440
      or (412) 268-2434
Fax:     (412) 268-5677
email:   jw3u@andrew.cmu.edu

RESEARCH:
Botanical art and illustration, particularly in India, covering all
periods (Mughal, Company, contemporary, scientific).  Artworks by Indian
artists have been featured in the Hunt Institute's "Natural-History
Paintings from Rajasthan" exhibition and International Exhibitions of
Botanical Art and Illustration, and some have been acquired for the
Institute's permanent collection.  White maintains a bibliography on
natural-history art and photography in India, including instructional
books on drawing and painting, history, exhibitions, collections and
artist biographies.  He also is preparing a database of original botanical
art in which botanical species represented in Indian artworks and
collections are listed.  White has contributed several articles about
Indian art to the Institute's journal of botanical history, Huntia.  The
recently published Huntia 9(2) includes the following articles: "Some
botanical paintings in the National Museum, New Delhi,"  "An album of
19th-century watercolors from India in the Hunt Institute"  (co-authored
with K. M. Matthew), "Botanical art in the Indian Museum, Calcutta,"
"Three botanical albums in the Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji's Saraswati
Mahal Library in India," "The Ganga Singh and P. N. Sharma collection of
watercolors at the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun,"  and "A
17th-century Persian manuscript in The Asiatic Society, Calcutta."  White
has been awarded a Fulbright grant to travel to Bangalore in South India
to catalog the botanically and artistically important collection of
watercolors and pencil drawings in the Lalbagh Botanical Garden.  He will
continue to the National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Garden, in Peradeniya,
Sri Lanka, to catalog another large collection of artworks.  Lugene Bruno,
Assistant Curator of Art at Hunt Institute, will accompany him to
photograph the two collections so that they may be recorded on CD-ROM. 
The CD-ROM will enable botanists throughout the world to identify the
plant species depicted in the artworks in these collections.  The fall
1996 trip will be White's fifth trip to India.