Nathan Dunn's Chinese Museum 1986

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Nathan Dunn's Chinese Museum 1986

http://www.amphilsoc.org/mole/view?docId=ead/Mss.069.C17n-ead.xml

Founded in 1838 by merchant and philanthropist Nathan Dunn (1782-1844), the Chinese museum informed and entertained Philadelphians from 1838-1841 with its variety of objects, art, and life-size figures in recreated Chinese room settings. For the 50,000 or so people who visited, the museum provided a window into a world that few of them ever would have the chance to experience firsthand. In his 1986 B.A. thesis at the University of Pennsylvania, Aaron Caplan described American diplomatic, commercial, and religious involvement in China and how the experiences of Anglo-American traders and missionaries influenced public perceptions of China and the Chinese. He explored how, in this context, Nathan Dunn's Chinese Museum educated and entertained the public and how it fit into the world of Philadelphia museums in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

0.1 Linear feet

American Philosophical Society

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SNAC Resource ID: 6630821

Related Entities

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Peale's Museum (Philadelphia, Pa.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nm46bd (corporateBody)

Peale's Museum was established by Charles Willson Peale in 1784. It was public rather than private in character and was governed initially by a Society of Visitors. The museum was moved to the Hall of the American Philosophical Society in 1794 and in 1802 by act of the Pennsylvania Assembly it ws granted the free use of the State House (Independence Hall) recently vacated by the legislature. It was subsequently incorporated as the Philadelphia Museum Company under the direction of a board of tru...

Chinese Museum (Philadelphia, Pa.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mt6wcn (corporateBody)

Caplan, Aaron

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66j74jp (person)

A museum featuring "ten thousand Chinese things," Nathan Dunn's Chinese Museum informed and entertained Philadelphians from 1838-1841. Filled with artifacts, paintings, life-size mannequins, and recreations of Chinese shops and drawing rooms, the museum gave Americans a brief glimpse of a country that most never would see. Founded in 1838 by merchant and philanthropist Nathan Dunn (1782-1844), the museum shared its home at Ninth and George (now Sansom) Streets in Philade...

Dunn, Nathan, 1782-1844

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z91hm8 (person)