Boston Flora

Tag: China Trade

  • Monday, October 28, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm – Conference on Newburyport and the China Trade

    Join The Museum of Old Newbury on October 28 for a full day Conference on Newburyport and the China Trade, 1844-2024: Commerce, Diplomacy, and the Arts in the Years of the Dragon.

    In 1843, Caleb Cushing of Newburyport resigned from the U.S. Congress to become America’s first commissioner to China. He arrived in China with four American warships, laden with gifts including revolvers, a telescope, and an encyclopedia, and used both threats and flattery to achieve his ends. The subsequent 1844 Treaty of Wanghia, named for the village where it was signed, was the first treaty between the U.S. and China. It was one more way in which Newburyport and the China Trade were inextricably linked.

    Join Eric Jay Dolin, author of When America Met China, and Dane Morrison, author of True Yankees: The South Seas & the Discovery of American Identity, along with art, shipbuilding, and modern China experts to evaluate the impact of the China Trade on various aspects of our community, our nation, and the world.

    This full-day event includes lunch and all sessions and is hosted by The Governor’s Academy, 1 Elm Street, Newbury, Massachusetts.

    Tickets are $45 for Museum of Old Newbury Members; $60 for non-members. Register at www.newburyhistory.org

  • Monday, February 28, 1:00 pm Eastern – The Life and Work of John Bradby Blake: Unspoken Questions

    The next lecture in The Gardens Trust series on the extraordinary life and work of John Bradby Blake continues February 28 at 1 pm Eastern with Professor Winnie Wong, University of California, Berkeley, entitled If Not This? – Unspoken Questions and the Pleasures of Substitution. This paper examines several instructional moments in which Chinese and European merchants and naturalists asked questions of Canton’s painters, apothecaries, herbalists, gardeners, street sellers, shopkeepers, and books. While they never seemed to get a proper answer, this paper interrogates their questions: why they were asked, and why they were so often unspoken and unrecorded. £5. Register through Eventbrite by clicking HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.