Object Photos

This page is for objects that illustrate the history of Chinese life and influence in the Midwest. The Places and People pages are for historical photos rather than objects. If you have historical Chinese-American objects, please let us know. We would like to photograph them and discuss a possible donation. For more about tax-deductible donations to our museum, please click on Support.

Objects from the Chinese Joss House and Theater, Chicago World's Fair, 1893

The fortune telling sticks were in the Chinese "Joss House" [temple] at the Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition (WCE) of 1893. They were sold to the Field Museum in 1894 by the Chicago-based merchant Hong Sling, manager for the Wah Mee Exposition Co, the group who built the Chinese theater/temple.

The junk was one of four from the Hall of Transpor-tation that came to the Field Museum in 1893

As far as we know, the pieces shown here and on the World's Columbian Exposition page are the only surviving Chinese objects from the WCE. All are now in the collection of the Field Museum (Accession 124). Photos by and courtesy of Ben Bronson.

Objects from the former Ling Long Museum, 1930s

Located in Chicago's Chinatown, the museum was a privately owned tourist attraction on Wentworth Avenue from 1933 through the early 1980s. Its founders evidently hoped to pull in visitors to the nearby 1933-34 World's Fair. The interior has become a restaurant. The painting depicts the Buddhist goddess Guanyin and may now be lost.

The Chinatown Museum Foundation now has most of the mini-dioramas and other objects from the Ling Long museum. They are currently in very poor condition due to damage suffered before they came to the CMF. While conservation work is just beginning, it is already clear that some dioramas cannot be saved.

The Chinese Exhibits at Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition, 1933-34

The most publicized Chinese exhibit was a replica of an 18th century Buddhist building in the Potala temple at Chengde or Jehol (now Rehe), north of Beijing. Billed as the Lama Temple of Jehol, it was brought to Chicago by the famed Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, with the financial support of the Swedish-American industrialist Vincent Bendix. The remains of the replica, now called the Golden Pavilion, are now in Stockholm, Sweden, but the furnishings -- altar objects, statues, paintings, hangings, rugs, etc. -- have disappeared. If you have any information about them, please let us know.

The Chinese nationalist government, in the person of its young Vice-Consul, G. H. Wang (later a leading developer of Chicago's Chinatown), took a strong interest in the temple. China declined to participate officially in the Exposition, however. All Chinese attractions there -- the Lama Temple, the China Pavilion exhibits, and the entertainments and shops of the Asian Village (in 1933) and the Streets of Shanghai (in 1934) -- were privately funded.

For the Exposition, the Field Museum commissioned a series of bronze portrait statues, "The Races of Mankind," by noted sculptor Malvina Hoffman. Several of her statues were of Chinese individuals, including this wonderful rickshaw puller.

"This carving is exceptionally fine and a rare specimen of art.

"During my travels as Imperial Chinese High Commissioner in the United States of America, I visited the museum at Chicago which was being built, and as a token of my pleasant remembrance of the trip, this historic stone is presented as a souvenir.

"Duan Fang,

Viceroy of Liang Kiang Provinces,

Minister of Trade for Southern Ports to Ching Dynasty H.I.M. Kuang Hsu

33rd year, 4th moon, Nanking, China"

We believe that other U.S. museums have ancient sculpture donated by Duan Fang. One such museum is the St. Louis Art Museum, which he must have visited in connection with the closing of the Chinese government exhibits at St. Louis World's Fair of 1905.

The First Donation by a Chinese to a Museum in the Midwest? -- 1907

This stone stele (FM #32362) was donated to the Field Museum by the imperial Chinese commissioner Duan Fang in 1907, the year after he visited the U.S. He wrote this note on the back, in Chinese and English. It reads:

" 'In the Tang Dynasty, 14th reign of the Emperor Kaiyuan, 3rd moon, this image of the supreme god Yuen Che Tin Chun was dedicated by Yangchen to invoke the blessings on his deceased daughter Ling Kung, his seven generations, past and present, his family and the people of the universe.'

These objects were found by archaeologist Scott Demel in 2002 during excavations in fill next to the foundations of the Field Museum, which was built in 1916-1917.

The sugar bowl, made for the then-fashionable King Joy Lo restaurant (57 W Randolph St., before 1911 until after 1915), is one of the earliest surviving objects from a Chinese restaurant in the Midwest. The bird feeder is the kind used by Chinese, not Western, bird lovers and almost certainly belonged to a Chinese-American resident of Chicago. The "fu" character was on an object -- perhaps a lid -- that has rusted completely away. Photos by Ben Bronson, courtesy of Scott Demel.

The altar and other objects from the On Leong building, ca. 1900. Objects from lakefront landfill in 1910-15. Objects from the 1893 Chicago World Fair. Objects from the 1933 Ling Long Museum Objects from the 1933-4 Chicago World Fair A Tang dynasty stele given by a Chinese diplomat to the Field Museum in 1907

Altar from the former On Leong building, ca. 1900

The splendid headquarters of the On Leong Association, the so-called "City Hall of Chinatown," was siezed by the Federal government in 1991 during a trumped-up prosecution for gambling. The contents of the building were placed in storage by the U.S. Marshals' Service. The items were eventually returned but the government had already sold On Leong's building to the Chinese Christian Union Church. Many of the old furnishings, including this superb altar, disappeared at that point.

We at CAMOC would like very much to know what has happened to the altar and its accessories: the standing lamps, the central painting (of Guandi?), the censers, etc. If you know, please drop us an email or give us a call.

For more about the Pui Tak / On Leong Building, click on Places