When Rabindranath Tagore visited the United States in 1916-17, there were a number of newspaper reports highlighting the Nobel laureate’s visit.
One report published in November 30, 1916 was titled “Tagore, Poet & Dreamer Indicts Civilisation of West”.
During his visit to the U.S. in 1930, New York Times reported that during a lecture delivered by Tagore “about 4,000 persons were in the hall and thousands were turned away”.
On his death on August 17, 1941, a memorial service was held for him at Grace Church in New York under the auspices of the World Fellowship of Faith.
During his lifetime, Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize, visited the U.S. five times and stayed there for nearly 17 months.
“Rabindranath and the U.S.” a permanent gallery highlighting his association with the U.S., through letters, newspaper reports, photographs and paintings was inaugurated on Saturday at Jorasanko Thakurbari in the city.
“What could be a better place to set up the gallery than the place where the poet was born and breathed his last? Along with other things, the gallery is also a symbol of India-U.S. friendship,” West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi said while inaugurating the work.
The U.S. Embassy in Delhi and the Consulate in Kolkata have provided grants for the gallery, spread over four rooms at Tagore’s ancestral house.
Tagore’s first real contact with America was through the University of Illinois, where he had sent his son, son-in-law and an ex-student of Santiniketan for advanced studies.
Walter Douglas, Minister Counsellor for Public Affairs U.S. Embassy New Delhi, said at the event that the American gallery will grow in size and stature in the days to come as more and more material on Tagore’s U.S. visit finds a place in the gallery.
The gallery has numerous references to various lectures delivered by Tagore such as “World Realisation”, “Realisation of Brahma” during his first visit and how he received a cable from James B Pond of New York, offering him a sum of $ 12,000 for a lecture tour in the U.S.
The Jorasanko Thakurbari has specific galleries dedicated to the poet’s association with Japan and China.
