Calling card for the Boston Chinese Museum "Writing Master" Tsow Chaoong. Includes a border containing flowers, birds, and cherubs. Chaoong's name also printed in Chinese characters. The Boston Chinese Museum, established following the first official trade agreement between the U.S. and China (Wanghsia Treaty of 1844), operated 1845-1847 in Boston before traveling to Philadelphia. The Museum operated in Philadelphia 1847-1849 and New York 1849-1850 before closing. Chaoong produced custom made cards for visitors that contained their names and places of birth in Chinese characters that were accompanied by his calling cards., Title from item., Date inferred from content., Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of views of Philadelphia., Card described in Ronald J. Zboray's "Between "Crockery-dom" and Barnum: Boston's Chinese Museum, 1845-47" American Quarterly, June 2004, pp. 292.
Date
[ [ca. 1847]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ephemera - Cards - C [(6)1322.F.127]
Illustrated trade card depicting Asian decorative motifs, including bamboo, a crane, and a fan. In the left a dragonfly flies over a stalk of bamboo. In the center is a large Asian character, possibly meant to be Chinese, surrounded by a geometric border. In ther right, a crane stands on one leg among reeds and a hand-held fan is spread open., Title supplied by cataloger., Date based on medium and content., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Digitized.
Date
[ca. 1880]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department trade card - Misc [1975.F.1034]
