On Wednesday, October 16, 2019, Pär Cassel, associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Michigan, showed his History 354 class (War, Rebellion and Revolution in China through Two Centuries) a selection of clothing and textiles from the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology’s Chinese Government Collection.

Cassel selected the objects to bring alive the history of the texts his students had been reading. With the help of museum collection manager Jim Moss, these items were chosen from over 1000 artifacts in the collection. The Chinese Government Collection was originally put together in China for the 1884 World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. After the Exposition closed, the entire collection was awarded to the University of Michigan, thanks to University President James Angell’s previous appointment as the U.S. Minister to China.

For information on how to show museum collections in the classroom, please contact Jim Moss at ummaa-collection-mgr@umich.edu.