In 1883, Isabella Stewart Gardner and her husband embarked on a trip that would take them from Boston, across the United States and the Pacific, to Japan, China, Cambodia, and finally, the India of the Raj. Travelling in the wake of recent Western expansion into Asia, they were privileged guests in a world convulsed by colliding forces and identities. They visited ancient temples; met missionaries and colonial officials; toured rubble left by anti-Western riots; camped at Angkor Wat but took first-class trains throughout India. Isabella kept a diary, bought photographs, and assembled travel albums. Back home, she became a pioneering collector of Asian art. Journeys East reconstructs the Gardners’ epic journey with illustrations from Isabella’s albums and quotations from her and her husband’s diaries and letters. Isabella’s evolving relationship to Asia is the subject of essays by Alan Chong, Noriko Murai, and Christine Guth, among other major authorities, that consider a broad range of topics, from the Japanese tea ceremony to her selection and display of Asian art at her extraordinary museum in Boston. A new kind of book, Journeys East combines the history of travel and collecting with the study of East-West relations. Nearly all the 400 illustrations in this oversize book reproduce vintage photographs collected on her travels. In numerous instances, the photographs document sites long changed beyond recognition. The book will be of exceptional interest to readers of Joseph Conrad. About the Author Alan Chong is the Curator of the Collection at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Noriko Murai is Professor of Art History at Temple University Japan Campus. $60.00