- Events
- Exhibitions
- How to get here
- Times & admission
- Latest visitor information
- Planetarium shows
- Coming soon
- Food & drink
- Access
- Staying in Greenwich
- Floor plans
- Group & school visits
- Scenic attractions
- Newsletter
2 October 2011–25 February 2012
Established by a group of London merchants, the East India Company was given its first royal charter by Elizabeth I. By the time it was abolished 250 years later, Queen Victoria was on the throne. The East India Company took on pirates, princes and rival traders in its pursuit of profit – changing the world in the process.
A new gallery at the National Maritime Museum explores the history and continuing relevance of Britain’s trade with Asia, looking at this compelling story through the lens of the East India Company. Traders: the East India Company and Asia examines the commodities that the Company traded, the people that shaped its tumultuous career and the conflicts and rebellions that were its ultimate undoing.
The East India Company and Me: Trace Your Family Roots
Saturday 25 February, 11.00–18.00 | FREE
We’ll be bringing together national archives, historians, photographers, authors and genealogists who have traced their ancestors from Anglo-Indians to British Yemenis. Pick up tips from the experts to help you discover yours.
The day will culminate in a discussion between Booker Prize-nominated author Amitav Ghosh and BBC journalist Razia Iqbal about the East India Company and its impact on the lives of families.
Bring your family to discover ancestral links across oceans and centuries in an exciting day of events and performances.
Family History Fair
Times: 11.00–16.00 | Location: Upper Deck, NMM
Archivists from our national archives will be present to advise on how you can use their resources to delve into family histories.
With the London Metropolitan Archives, Ming-Ai Chinese Community History Project, Families in British India Society (FIBIS), and the Museum’s Caird Library.
Meet the Experts
Times: 11.00–16.00. Specific times will be listed on the day. | Location: Propeller, Neptune Court, NMM
Learn more about researching East India Company-related histories through these workshops and talks.
- Talks on ‘The East India Company Archives’ and ‘The Lives of East India Workers’ by The British Library.
- Historian Cliff Pereira will tell of how he discovered his almost forgotten Indian Sub-Continent family history, of British Royal and Merchant naval ancestors of the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Genealogist Anthony Adolph will be running workshops on tracing family trees.
Traders Remixed
Times: 11.00–16.00 | Location: Compass Lounge, Sammy Ofer Wing, NMM
Join the Museum’s Youth Advisory Group as they launch their first exhibition, inspired by Traders: the East India Company and Asia. The exhibition will be officially opened by the Museum's Director Dr Kevin Fewster at 12.00. YAG will present the photographs together with objects selected from the Museum’s collection until 13.00.
Family Activities
Family Trees: Drop-in Workshop
Times: 11.30–13.30, 14.00–16.00 | Location: Upper Deck, NMM | Age: Suitable for all
Tell us about your family, and explore how people have moved from place to place to make a new home for themselves. Make a 3-D family tree to remind you of how far your family have travelled.
.jpg){kind=logo}
James Robson: a Sailor’s Tale of Tea: Interactive Performance
Times: 12.30, 13.30, 14.30, 15.30 | Location: Main entrance, Sammy Ofer Wing | Age: 6+
Join sailor James Robson on a voyage from China to Britain. Hear about life on-board the Cutty Sark tea clipper and about working with Chinese lascars.
John Morgan: Voice of a Lascar: Interactive Performance
Times: 12.00, 13.00, 14.00, 15.00 | Location: Stanhope entrance from Romney Road | Age: 6+
Go on a journey with South Asian lascar John Morgan, who will tell you about working for the British East India Company to bring fabric and spices to Britain.
Author Reading with Romesh Gunesekera
Time: 15.30–16.00 | Location: Atlantic Worlds gallery, NMM
Romesh Gunesekera, Booker Prize-nominated author for Reef, will be reading from his latest novel The Prisoner of Paradise. Set in Mauritius in 1825, the novel describes the end of the Slave Trade and the resulting turmoil and confusion. Book signing in the Museum's shop will follow.
The Company, the Sailors and their Descendants
Location: Lecture Theatre, NMM | Age: Suitable for 12+
- The Sailors: Time: 12.30–13.00.
Photographer Tim Smith presents his record of Yemeni immigrants who came to work in Britain's ports and industries. He will also explore the links between Britain’s oldest Muslim community and the former East India Company base in Aden. - East Indians in the Company: Time: 13.00–13.45
This talk by historian Cliff Pereira will provide a glimpse of the non-British men who sailed on British East India Company vessels during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Tracing your Family Connections to Asia
- The National Maritime Museum’s Archivist Geraldine Charles will share her family’s fascinating Anglo-Indian past |Time: 14.00–14.45
- Abi Husainy, a leading expert on South Asian family history will explain how to get started, and will also answer questions | Time: 14.45–15.30
Imagining Communities across the Oceans
Location: Lecture Theatre, NMM | Age: Suitable for 12+
- The Company that Changed the World: Time: 16.00–17.00
Author Amitav Ghosh in conversation with journalist Razia Iqbal. Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy is set during the Opium Wars and features a polyglot cast and crew whose family ties are washed away as they forge new lives in remote lands. Amitav will also be signing his books; if you would like him to autograph one for you, please pick up a copy beforehand from the Museum's shop. - Closing Panel: Time: 17.00–17.30
In this session you will have a final chance to quiz the speakers and share your discoveries.
Schools Programme
The National Maritime Museum offers a rich and varied schools programme, supporting students and teachers at both primary and secondary school. We offer a variety of exciting learning programmes, providing opportunities across the curriculum. These include a range of new sessions specifically linked to Traders: the East India Company and Asia. Sessions range from World Traders for Key Stage 1, which explores the concept of trade through familiar items, to our Key Stage 3 Study Day, where students discover how the East India Company changed people’s lives in Europe and Asia. For more information and resources visit our Schools pages.
Family Programme – Curious Cargo
Fabulous fabrics for people to wear; exotic spices to make food taste delicious, and refreshing tea for grown-ups to drink. From the 1750s people in Britain had a huge choice of things to buy for the very first time, at cheap prices all could afford, thanks to the fortunes of the British East India Company trading goods from across the world. Discover more in a range of intriguing activities about the Company’s trade in fabrics and spices with India and tea with China, and explore the new Traders gallery. Visit our Families page for details.
Monsoon Traders
Monsoon Traders: the Maritime World of the East India Company was published to accompany the new permanent gallery at the National Maritime Museum, Traders: The East India Company and Asia.
Expertly written by three leading historians, Monsoon Traders tells the story of the East India Company’s encounter with the Indian Ocean and the effects this had on Asian and British societies and politics. Highly illustrated throughout with objects from the collection, it explores conflict and conquest, piracy, rebellion and empire.
Published by Scala in association with the National Maritime Museum, the book is available online through the Museum's shop.