{"id":3242,"date":"2015-06-03T14:25:31","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T18:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/preserving\/?p=3242"},"modified":"2015-06-03T14:25:31","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T18:25:31","slug":"nathan-dunn-and-his-museum-of-10000-chinese-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/2015\/06\/03\/nathan-dunn-and-his-museum-of-10000-chinese-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Dunn and his museum of “10,000 Chinese Things”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Entrance<\/a><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n

Nathan Dunn (1782- 1844) was a Quaker merchant and philanthropist who embarked on a mission to collect cultural artifacts from China to both educate and entertain Americans. In 1838, he opened his\u00a0\u201cChinese Museum\u201d in Philadelphia, more commonly\u00a0referred to as Ten Thousand Chinese Things<\/em>. The collection was a spectacle\u00a0and quite popular with the public, garnering\u00a0over 100,000 visitors in its first year. A published guidebook was offered as way to promote the collection and educate visitors. In 1842, after financial troubles, Dunn moved the collection to London, where it was housed in a pagoda-like exhibition hall at\u00a0Hyde Park Corner. Queen Victoria was its first visitor at the June opening. The\u00a0collection\u00a0was equally popular in London, as it was in\u00a0Philadelphia, with some\u00a070,000 to 80,000 catalogs sold in the U.S. and England. This Harvard Library copy of the 1843 revised catalog provides history, background, and a complete list of the exhibits, remaining one of the few resources left\u00a0to indicate what was in the museum.\u00a0The collection was unlike any other at its time, apart from artifacts, specimens, and dioramas, the museum also had life-size clay mannequins\u00a0accurately modeled after some 50 real Chinese acquaintances of\u00a0Dunn. The collection could be considered a forerunner to museum period rooms, with recreated shops and interiors encompassing all of Chinese society, from mandarins, priests, barbers, shoemakers, soldiers, merchants, and beggars. At its time, collections and exhibitions such as this one were looked upon as possible substitutes for travel abroad. E\u00a0. C. Wines announced\u00a0that one no longer had to \u201csubject one\u2019s self to the hazards and privations of a six months\u2019 voyage on distant and dangerous seas, to enjoy a peep at the Celestial Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revised\u00a0catalog for London opens with acknowledgement of the recent\u00a0Opium War:<\/p>\n

The present crisis of affairs in China has awakened in the public <\/em>
\nmind a deep and powerful feeling of inquiry towards this singular and <\/em>
\nsecluded people. <\/em>
\nThe particular object with which the following pages are so immediately <\/em>
\nassociated, proving beyond all other means, a useful and pleasing <\/em>
\nmedium of conveying the information sought for; and the copious <\/em>
\nremarks contained in former Catalogues of the Chinese Collection <\/em>
\nhaving been so favourably received by the public (of which upwards of <\/em>
\n80,000 copies have been sold), the author has been induced to increase <\/em>
\nthe size of the present volume by the addition of much original matter, <\/em>
\ntogether with information obtained by an abridgment of the latest and <\/em>
\nbest authorities. <\/em>
\nThe object desired in the present publication is to present to the <\/em>
\nreader, and the visitor of the Collection, the greatest amount of knowledge <\/em>
\nin the smallest possible space.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Illustrated London News described the exhibition and its significance–<\/p>\n

Upon the left-hand side of the inclined plane, extending iron Hyde Park Corner to Knightsbridge, and towards the extremity of St. George’s.-place, a grotesque erection has lately sprung up with all the cupidity which distinguishes the building operations of the present day.\u00a0 As the work proceeded, many were the guesses at the purpose for which it was intended; and, to feed the suspense of the many thousands who daily pass this thoroughfare, the work was covered with canvas until just completed. The structure in question is the entrance to an extensive apartment filled with “curiosities of China.” In design this entrance is characteristically Chinese, and is taken from the model of a summer residence now in the collection. It is of two stories, the veranda roof of the lower one being supported by vermilion-coloured columns, with pure white capitals, and over the doorway is inscribed, in Chinese characters, “Ten Thousand Chinese Things.” Such summer-houses as the above are usual in the gardens of the wealthy, in the southern provinces of China, often standing in the midst of a sheet of water, and approached by bridges and sometimes they have mother-of- pearl windows. Although the above building in raised from the pathway, whence it is approached by a flight of steps, it is somewhat squatly proportioned. But such is the character of Chinese buildings, so that when the Emperor Kesen-king saw a perspective view of a street in Paris or London, he observed, “that territory must be very small whose inhabitants are obliged to pile their houses to the clouds;” and, in a poem on London, by a Chinese visitor, it is stated,-<\/em>“The houses are so lofty that you may pluck the stars.”<\/em>
\nThe collection we are about to notice has been formed by an American gentleman, Mr. Nathan Dunn, who resided in China for a period of twelve years, and experienced more courtesy from the Chinese than generally falls to the lot of foreigners. Mr. Dunn was, moreover, assisted in his labours by Howqua, Tingqua, and other Hong merchants of note and who, in this instance, seemed to rise above the prejudices of their countrymen, in being most “willing to communicate.” The design at first was merely to collect a few rare specimens for a private cabinet; but the appetite grew with what it fed upon, and thus Mr. Dunn has assembled what may, without exaggeration, be termed the Chinese world in miniature . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

Dunn died in 1844 and the fate of his unique collection still remains somewhat sketchy. Most evidence points to the collection being picked up by showmen, including P.T. Barnum, before it\u00a0eventually became\u00a0dispersed through auctions to\u00a0private collectors and perhaps lost to time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Replica of an apartment of a Chinese Nobleman<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Replica of a bedroom<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Examples of furnishings<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Chinese lantern<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Hatching eggs by artificial heat<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Description:<\/dt>\n
Langdon, William B. Ten thousand things relating to China and the Chinese :an epitome of the genius, government, history, literature, agriculture, arts, trade, manners, customs, and social life of the people of the celestial empire, together with a synopsis of the Chinese collection.<\/span><\/dd>\n
Persistent Link:<\/dt>\n
http:\/\/nrs.harvard.edu\/urn-3:FHCL:14014112<\/a><\/dd>\n
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Repository:<\/dt>\n
Widener Library<\/dd>\n
Institution:<\/dt>\n
Harvard University<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nathan Dunn (1782- 1844) was a Quaker merchant and philanthropist who embarked on a mission to collect cultural artifacts from China to both educate and entertain Americans. In 1838, he opened his\u00a0\u201cChinese Museum\u201d in Philadelphia, more commonly\u00a0referred to as Ten Thousand Chinese Things. The collection was a spectacle\u00a0and quite popular with the public, garnering\u00a0over 100,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2559,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3242"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3285,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242\/revisions\/3285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}