Starboard Watch Sargentville, ME April 15, 2004
From the Curator:
The travelling exhibit China: Exploring the Interior, 1903-04 evolved from the simple album of photographs compiled by R. Harvey Sargent on completion of his first adventure abroad. Years later his son, Clyde Sargent, prepared the collection for publication as a book, a project interrupted by Clyde's death in 1981. In 1991, aware of this unusual photographic record of life in the interior of China at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Professor Jerome Holloway, a member of the Newport (RI) Public Library's Chinese Room Committee, urged the Sargent family to produce the collection as a travelling exhibit. Prompt discovery of the photographic negatives in the attic of the Sargent home enabled the project to move forward.
The publication of this catalogue coincides with the centennial of the Carnegie Institution exploration it records, and with the tenth anniversary of the first public sharing of the exhibit China: Exploring the Interior, 1903-04. Since then, the exhibit has hung in 29 venues in Colorado, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia where it has been shared with an estimated 55,000 viewers. Its internet presence, www.chinaexhibit.org, has served the interests of researchers in countless places around the world.
The production and sharing of the exhibit has been a team effort from the start. Material and moral support have come from the Chinese Program Committee of the Newport (RI) Public Library and the many organizations and individuals listed elsewhere in this catalogue. None of it would be possible without the consistently caring and competent work of my friend and associate, Cynthia Reilly
It is undeniable that China is rapidly assuming an ever larger role in the international community For observers and participants in this evolution, increased awareness of the history of China and its people surely is important indeed. Our hope is that China: Exploring the Interior, 1903-04 may continue to contribute to deepening that awareness.
Robert M. Sargent