Artist unknown
Benjamin Carpenter, c. 1780
Oil on canvas
Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, M351
Benjamin Carpenter
A View of Gingeram [Janjira] on the Malabar Coast, 1793
Ink on paper
Courtesy of the Phillips Library Collection, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, log1792hp139
A lifelong sailor, Benjamin Carpenter sketched views such as this image of Janjira in journals, chronicling his voyages on the Ruby and Hercules between 1789 and 1793. Carpenter also helped establish his Massachusetts hometown as a prominent East India trade port by organizing the Salem East India Marine Society in 1799.