Welcome to the 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition!
In 1884-1885, the Maritimes Customs Department of Chinese Government sent an exhibition to “The World Cotton Centennial Exposition” (also known as the “World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition”) –a World’s Fair held in New Orleans. The Fair, which ran from December 16, 1884-June 2, 1885, featured exhibitions from around the world. The Chinese Exhibition was coordinated by Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service of China. Hart began his career as a British vice consul, who left British service in 1863 to serve in the new Chinese Customs Service under the Ching State. The complex relations between the Chinese Maritime Customs Services and Britain and of Robert Hart himself have been controversial topics in recent Chinese history. Recently, however, especially as a result of the recent Shanghai Expo, there has been renewedinternationalinterest in the fair and the collection held by the University of Michigan.
In keeping with the theme of the Exposition, the Chinese display featured textile products and raw materials, particularly those made of cotton. These included both samples of cloth as well as finished garments, ranging from elaborate embroidered robes toused garments worn by farmers and even prisoners. Other objects associated with textile production included scale models of production tasks, printing blocks, and shoes, hats, belts, pillows, etc. Also included in the Exposition wasa range of other goods –calligraphy scrolls, porcelain vessels,woodenfurniture, bamboo and lacquerobjects, ivory chess sets, and jewelry and snuff bottles, among many other goods. The Collection was accompanied by a Catalogue, which described the expedition and listed all of the objects included in Chinese and English (with contemporary monetary value).
As the Exposition wound up, Robert Hart decided to present the entire collection to the University of Michigan. Hart had met President Angell when he was posted at the American Legation, and Hart wrote: “from among several claimants it gave me great pleasure to select your University for the gift, mindful as I was of the pleasant relations you cultivated and maintained, official and private, when at the American Legationhere (Peking, 1 October 1885).The collection, complete with catalogs and the original handwritten shipping inventories were sent to Ann Arborand placed under the Museum Department, shifting to the Museum of Zoology in 1913, and the Museum of Anthropology when it was founded in 1922. Today the collection consists of more than 2200 objects.