A Scandinavian Nabob of the British Empire: The Discovery of a New Colonial Archive
Joseph Stephensâ life history forces us to rethink our understanding of Indiaâs railway development, the wider distribution of colonial wealth in the Western world, and the transnational nature of British imperialism.
The Huseby Estate, Småland. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
History02/Jan/2021
It happens once in a while that a significant archive of a colonial businessmen gets discovered in an attic. The caretakers of a manor house â the Huseby Bruk â in the SmÃ¥land region of South Sweden discovered boxes full of papers and objects, lying silently in an upper story dark hall. These were the India papers of Mr Joseph Stephens. Stephens, in India, was a railway contractor of one of the earliest railway companies in the colonies: the Great India Peninsular Railway Company (GIPR).