In March 1884 P. T. Barnum's ship Lydian Monarch brought a "sacred white elephant" from Burma, named Toung Taloung, to New York. New Yorkers flocked to see it, but the animal turned out to be pale grey with a few pinkish patches. His rival, circus owner Adam Forepaugh, mocked it in advertisements as not white enough and promoted his own elephant as the real thing; he is said to have whitened it with paint. The feud played out in the press and in ads, some using racist ideas, and exposed how fuzzy the idea of whiteness was. Barnum eventually defended it with the argument that "white" meant a rare shade.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.