An Archive of One's Own

Wapping

1860-1864

Historic trade route between Asia and Europe

Term 'Silk Road' wasn't used by those who used the path, it was coined in the 19th C and mapped by German geographer Ferdinand von Richtofen as a single red line running west from China into Central Asia.

New research: more connected, and more expansive than we thought. Instead of a single route, there was a sprawling web of interlocking networks that spanned across Asia, Africa, Europe, Japan, Ireland, Madagascar -- by land, river, sea. Lots of exchanges including trade.

...surged to and fro, with a

noise like the sound of the sea...

“Lady Elizabeth Keppel” (1761) by Joshua Reynolds

Lady Elizabeth Keppel is shown adorning a figure of Hymen with garlands of flowers. Her dress is the one she had worn recently as a bridesmaid to Queen Charlotte at her wedding to George III. As one of ten attendants chosen from the eldest unmarried daughters of dukes and earls, she helped to carry Charlotte's train. Her dress of silver tissue complemented the Queen's. Here, her own attendant also wears a rich dress, of silk or cotton which is painted or embroidered. She was a real person who sat to Reynolds twice, according to his sitting book, though her name is not recorded, and it's not known if she was Lady Elizabeth's servant.