Exist Dates
1901 - 1904
Biographical or Historical Note
- abstract
- The American Museum of Natural History's 1901-1904 Expedition to China was
one of the first American attempts to study the history and culture of a
literate, technologically sophisticated civilization. Led by Berthold Laufer,
the expedition was intended to be a holistic anthropological study, documenting
the industrial and social life of the Chinese people. Laufer's work encompassed
ethnology, archaeology and physical anthropology; his collections included
books, paintings, inscriptions, bas-reliefs, bronzes, pottery, metal mirrors,
theater puppets and musical transcriptions.(1)
Berthold Laufer (1874-1934) was a young German scholar of Asian languages and
scripts when Franz Boas recruited him for fieldwork on Sakhalin Island and the
Amur River as part of the American Museum of Natural History’s Jesup North
Pacific Expedition (1897-1902). Having proven his aptitude for ethnographic
fieldwork, he was asked by Boas to undertake a second substantial expedition on
the Museum’s behalf. The Jacob H. Schiff expedition (1901-1904) sent Laufer to
China to “carry out scientific investigations in Eastern Asia” (Laufer to Boas,
January 7, 1900) and to make “collections which illustrate the popular customs
and beliefs of the Chinese, their industries, and their mode of life.” (Boas to
Jesup, December 27, 1902)
Laufer studied and documented all manner of Chinese enterprise,
and at the same time amassed a collection that would serve as the foundation
for a nascent Asian studies enterprise in New York. This would link Columbia
University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, and cement New York City’s reputation as a premiere hub of
knowledge on China. The timing was excellent, for after the disastrous anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the Manchu government
became more progressive. Chinese students were encouraged to come to the United States, and many studied at Columbia. Although
the project ultimately failed, it established the foundation for Asian Studies at Columbia University and brought a wealth
of China-related material to AMNH (4). Indeed the Museum’s holdings in Asian ethnology comprise the finest collection in the
Western hemisphere, with Laufer’s collecting representing roughly half of today's total Chinese collections.
Sources
(1) AMNH Catalog record for MSS.E973
(2) AMNH Anthropology researcher Laura Warne (with Laurel
Kendall)
(3) 1903 AMNH Annual Report pg. 55
(4) Wm. Theodore de Bary, “East Asian Studies at Columbia: The Early Years,” Columbia Alumni Magazine, Spring 2002
(5) AMNH Annual Report No. 33 for year 1901
(6) AMNH Annual Report for year 1904
(7) Natural History, 2/1983, p. 34
Chronology
- 1900 April 11: Franz Boaz proposes AMNH China Expedition to Columbia University President Seth Low, New York
.
- 1900 November 27: Jacob H. Schiff writes to President Low saying he would consider supporting the expedition, New York.
- 1900 December 24: Schiff pledges $6,000/year for three years and suggests committee members
- 1901: West and Southwest Halls on the second floor of AMNH “contain at present a portion of the material sent from China by Dr.
Laufer.” (5, p. 18)
- 1901 February 16: AMNH Committee votes to employ Berthold Laufer
- 1901 April: Washington Laufer arrives in the United States, interviews Chinese minister in Washington DC.
- 1901 April: Laufer departs from his home in Cologne, travels to London, then Washington DC, where he interviews the Chinese minister
- 1901 June: Laufer orders “apparatus for recording inscriptions”
- 1901 July 25: Laufer departs San Francisco by ship, stops in Honolulu
- 1901 August 20 - 1901 November 8: Shanghai Starting place of the expedition. Laufer used Shanghai as a base while on a five-week collecting tour of Southern Jiangsu
and Zhejiang provinces, visiting Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Putuoshan, and Haimen in 1901, and ends his expedition there in
1904
- 1901 August 20: Laufer arrives in Shanghai, Shanghai.
- 1901 August 30: Laufer’s first letter from Shanghai arrives at the Museum. He stays in Shanghai three weeks, makes major purchase of encyclopedic
Tu shu shi cheng for $135, Shanghai.
- 1901 October: Laufer embarks on ambitious five-week tour of Southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, visiting Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou,
Ningbo, Putuoshan, and Haimen. He travels alone and manages all aspects of collecting himself. Travels by junk, horseback,
palanquin, and small boat, “totally like a Chinese.”
- 1901 October 1: First shipment of collections arrives in Chicago, en-route to AMNH, New York.
- 1901 November 8: Laufer returns to Shanghai, stays in Mrs. Clark's boarding house, complains of injury to right hand slowing his work, stays
three weeks, Shanghai.
- 1901 December: Laufer takes boat to Beijing, settles in for major collecting and study, finds local tutor, Beijing.
- 1902: “Early in the year, Dr. Laufer moved to Peking.” (5), Beijing.
- 1902 June: Laufer travels north of Beijing to major sites including Ming Tombs, Great Wall, temple complexes, Beijing.
- 1902 August: Laufer visits Lamaist Temples in Jehol, Chengde.
- 1902 December 2: Laufer begins travels in western and northwestern regions, with a brief stop in Nanjing, where he sees the Taiping rebellion-ravaged
city
- 1903 July: Laufer travels to Xian, Shaanxi Province
- 1903: “Chinese collection placed temporarily in the cases in the corner gallery of the west wing…”
“Dr. Laufer actively pushing the work in China…very extensive collections, referring specifically to the industrial life of
the Chinese, have been received by the Museum…[he] is expected to return to New York during the spring of 1904, and will give
his personal attention to the installation of these collections.” (3, p. 21, 23)
- 1903 March: Laufer travels to Hankou
- 1903 April: Hankou Laufer receives a gift of forty-four Chinese bird skins on behalf of the Museum.
- 1903 April: Laufer receives a gift of forty-four Chinese bird skins from Albert Frank, a western collector, on behalf of the AMNH (6,
p. 53)
- 1903 July - 1903 August: Xian, Shaanxi Province Laufer’s collecting shifts to the west. Traveling by mule cart, Laufer collects in Xian, as well as Xianfu, Shensi Province,
then on to Tianjin
- 1903 August: Laufer travels to Xianfu, Shensi Province
- 1903 August 16: Laufer makes inquiry into making ink rubbings of a stone vault tomb complex in Chengdu, this does not come about
- 1903 September: Laufer packs collections into a seven mule cart caravan, Xianfu overland to Tianjin
- 1903 October: Laufer finally arrives in Tianjin after travelling overland by donkey for 31 days
- 1903 October: Laufer arrives back in Beijing, spends two months collecting, then embarks on a five-week tour of Qingdao and Shandong Province
- 1903 December 1: Laufer “completes Mrs. Robert W. de Forest Collection of Pottery, 541 pieces ($275).” I Hsing Tsien
- 1904 Summer: The last shipment of collections arrives at the Museum, 305 cases, New York.
- 1904: “Fieldwork closed in China, all collections received by the Museum, and installed in the Southwest Gallery” (3, p.19)
- 1904 - 1906: Laufer drafts his Guide to the Chinese Hall, AKA Guide to the South West Gallery, documenting one of the finest records of
the material culture of China every assembled. It was never published, but remains in heavily annotated galleys (in the library
and digitized)
- 1904 February: Shanghai Starting place of the expedition. Laufer used Shanghai as a base while on a five-week collecting tour of Southern Jiangsu
and Zhejiang provinces, visiting Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Putuoshan, and Haimen in 1901, and ends his expedition there in
1904
- 1904 February 10: Laufer arrives back in Shanghai, Shanghai.
- 1904 February 23: Expedition Committee offers Laufer a one-year position of Assistant, Ethnology, at a salary of $1,500/year
- 1904 April 15: Laufer returns home by way of Shanghai, Suez, Cologne
- 1904 October 1 - 1906: Laufer begins work at American Museum of Natural History, as Assistant in Ethnology, at $1,500/year, New York.
- 1906: Museum President Morris K. Jesup decides that there will be no more collecting in China; AMNH is to be a natural history museum
only. (7, p. 34)
- 1907: Laufer takes position at the Field Museum, Chicago, Chicago.
Terms
- place
- Washington
dates: 1901 April
Laufer arrives in the United States, interviews Chinese minister in Washington DC.
- place
- Shanghai
dates: 1904 February
Starting place of the expedition. Laufer used Shanghai as a base while on a five-week collecting tour of Southern Jiangsu
and Zhejiang provinces, visiting Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Putuoshan, and Haimen in 1901, and ends his expedition there in
1904
- place
- Hankou
dates: 1903 April
Laufer receives a gift of forty-four Chinese bird skins on behalf of the Museum.
- place
- Xian, Shaanxi Province
dates: 1903 July-1903 August
Laufer’s collecting shifts to the west. Traveling by mule cart, Laufer collects in Xian, as well as Xianfu, Shensi Province,
then on to Tianjin
