Summary

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)

Chronology:

1900 April 11

Franz Boaz proposes AMNH China Expedition to Columbia University President Seth Low.

1900 November 27

Jacob H. Schiff writes to President Low saying he would consider supporting the expedition.

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

Shanghai

Laufer arrives in Shanghai.

1901 August 20-1901 November 8

Shanghai

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 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.

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.

1901 December

Beijing

Laufer takes boat to Beijing, settles in for major collecting and study, finds local tutor.

1902

Beijing

“Early in the year, Dr. Laufer moved to Peking.” (5)

1902 June

Beijing

Laufer travels north of Beijing to major sites including Ming Tombs, Great Wall, temple complexes.

1902 August

Chengde

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

“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

Hankou

Laufer travels to Hankou.

1903 April

Hankou

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.

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

Laufer ends expedition.

1904 February 10

Shanghai

Laufer arrives back in 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.

Description

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.

REFERENCES

(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

Topics

• AMNH Expeditions

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records: