December 7, 2013–April 13, 2014
Getty Research Institute Galleries I and II
Connecting Seas draws on the Getty Research Institute's extensive special collections to reveal how adventures on other continents and discoveries of different cultures were perceived, represented, and transmitted in the past, when ocean travel was the primary means by which people and knowledge circulated.
Featuring rare books and maps, photographs and panoramic vues d'optique, prints, and even Napoleon's monumental folios on Egypt, the exhibition traces the fascinating course of scholarly investigation and comprehension of cultures in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
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From Muhammad Ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli, Dala’il al-khairat (Istanbul, early 1700s)
Ink, watercolor, and pigments on paper
The Getty Research Institute, 2013.M.26
From “Tibetan Pattern Book of Proportions” (Nepal, 1700s), n.p.
Ink on woven cotton
The Getty Research Institute, 930002
Andrew Picken (British, 1815–1845) after Fredrick Catherwood (English, 1799–1854)
From Frederick Catherwood, Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan (London, 1844), pl. 23
Color lithograph
The Getty Research Institute, 84-B8523
![Etching and Engraving of Temple of Hathor at Dendera [Tentyris], Interior View](images/CS012_gri_83_b7948_b_344321ds_sm.jpg)
François-Noël Sellier (French, born 1737) after Jean-Baptiste Prosper Jollois (French, 1776–1842) and René Edouard de Villiers du Terrage (French, 1780–1855)
From Description de l’Égypte; ou, Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypt pendant l’expédition de l’armée française / publié sur les ordres de Sa Majesté l’empereur Napoléon le Grand: Antiquités, Planches, vol. 4 (Paris, 1817), pl. 30
Etching and engraving
The Getty Research Institute, 83-B7948
Anonymous photographer(s)
ca. 1880–ca. 1899
Albumen prints
The Getty Research Institute, 2011.R.13
Joseph Nash (English, 1809–1878)
From Dickinsons’ Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851: From
the Originals Painted for H.R.H. Prince Albert (London, 1854), vol. 1, pl. 24
Chromolithograph
The Getty Research Institute, 90-B9947
These fully digitized books are among 62 books and journals featured in the exhibition. Flip through the pages, zoom in on illustrations, or read the book from cover to cover.
There’s been an unusual addition to the Getty staff. His name is William Dampier, and he’s an art-history pirate. The creation of young-adult author Cornelia Funke, Dampier inhabits the Getty Research Institute exhibition Connecting Seas and comes alive only when unfolded. More
From 1886 to 1897 French explorer Edouard Foà worked in Africa, first managing a trading company in the French colony of Dahomey and then exploring East and South Africa, having been invited by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cross the continent from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. More
Published in 1941, this “Trading Game: France–Colonies” aimed to teach French children the basics of colonial management. Players drew cards corresponding to colony names, then had to deploy cards representing assets like boats, engineers, colonists, schools, and equipment… More
A whole section of the exhibition features educational tools used to teach children about the colonial lands serving the European motherland. One of the most vivid renditions is this jeu des échanges, or "trading game." More
Continuing our series of stories from the exhibition Connecting Seas, co-curator Isotta Poggi reflects on the work of two contemporary photographers who make visible, in very different ways, the legacy of colonialism. More
In 1994, I had just returned to Paris from Asia. Yet all I could think about was Africa. I had been living in Japan for a few years, working as a trader for an investment bank and, as for any migrant, this long journey exerted a profound and lasting influence on me. More
A craze for all things Egyptian gripped Europe in the early 1800s. Continuing our series of stories from the exhibition Connecting Seas, exhibition co-curator Peter Bonfitto reveals how, through the lens of Egyptomania, even an Aztec sculpture could seem to hail from the banks of the Nile. More
The Getty Research Institute is debuting its expanded exhibition space with "Connecting Seas: A Visual History of Discoveries and Encounters." The original L-shaped gallery (800 sq. ft.) is now joined by a larger (2000-sq.-ft.), more appealing room. More
A new exhibition at the Getty Research Institute takes us across time and cultures via the seas. Co-curator Kim Richter reveals a glimpse of the ancient Americas, which has given rise to the vibrant cultural and linguistic plurality of today's Latin America. More
![Zograscope [with engraving of] Cape of Good Hope](images/CS251_gri_93_r_118_7_b29_138477ds_sm.jpg)
