[Portrait of T'sow-Chaoong]

Unknown

1845–47 · Daguerreotype · Photographs

Boston’s short-lived Chinese Museum, which opened on September 8, 1845, and closed in 1847, was created on the heels of the Treaty of Wanghia, a diplomatic agreement between the United States and China. An experiment in cultural understanding, the museum attempted to illuminate Chinese character and institutions with the help of two Cantonese cultural ambassadors: the poet and music teacher, Le-Kaw-hing; and the “Writing Master,” T’sow-Chaoong, who is pictured here. Elegantly posed beside a porcelain vase of cut flowers, T’sow-Chaong holds a fan in one hand and a daguerreotype in the other; these attributes, in addition to his long fingernails, emphasize his status as a gentleman and scholar. At the museum, he demonstrated calligraphy and provided visitors, including the poet Emily Dickinson, with calling cards on which he wrote their names in Chinese symbols.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1845–47

Medium

Daguerreotype

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005