Mapping Color in History
Mapping Color in History (MCH) is a digital research platform that brings together the scientific data drawn from existing and ongoing material analyses of pigments, especially in Asian painting, to enable historical research.
Project Team (MCH India)
Project Director/Principal Investigator
Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Department of History of Art + Architecture, and Professor of South Asian Studies, Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University
Mapping Color in History – India Research Manager
Anjali Jain, Conservator at the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur, India
“MCH is trying to help people appreciate the connection between art and science and bridge the two disciplines.”
Jinah Kim, Principal Investigator/Project Director, Mapping Color in History
A major component of the project, MCH-India, focuses on collaborative research on historical pigments in India to enhance the understanding of the global history of color and pigments. By deploying the MCH Mobile Heritage Lab for site-specific research in museums and archives in India, it collects valuable data on historical pigments and promotes research-based conservation practices. Initially established through the Tata-LMSAI grant in late 2019, the lab has expanded through additional faculty research grants from the Mittal Institute.
The project addresses misconceptions about historical pigments by compiling object-based pigment analysis data, ensuring precise historical research. For instance, it challenges assumptions such as every blue pigment in medieval Indian painting being ultramarine; the MCH database shows that the more common blue colorant found in medieval Indic manuscript painting (pre-1600 CE) is indigo. The project is multidisciplinary, combining scientific analysis with humanistic research through digital humanities tools. MCH-India fosters multilateral, international collaborations, exemplified by the historic partnership with the Asiatic Society, Mumbai, which concluded in Spring 2024, setting the framework for further on-site research in India and beyond.
The project successfully collaborated with the Asiatic Society, Mumbai (ASM), analyzing five historically important manuscripts. Following the initial analysis conducted in 2022-2023, detailed analytical reports were submitted to ASM. Condition reports for the manuscripts were prepared, and preservation measures were implemented with ASM staff, who were trained in rehousing techniques. Additionally, pigment samples were collected from a traditional painter’s workshop in Jaipur, leading to collaboration with the Harvard Art Museum Straus Center for pigment analysis and resulting in one poster and one peer-reviewed journal publication, with two more pending.
Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Department of History of Art + Architecture, and Professor of South Asian Studies, Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University.
Measuring twelfth-century palm-leaf manuscript for condition report, MCH-India project at the Asiatic Society, Mumbai, November 16, 2022.