In the first decades of the 20th century, art collector and philanthropist Charles Lang Freer helped make Michigan—especially Detroit and Ann Arbor—into a global hub for the collecting and study of Chinese art. How did Freer, who founded the Freer Gallery of Art that is now part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, connect Detroit with people, institutions, and artworks across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans? And how did these cultural networks relate to and amplify the rising political and economic power of the United States in the early 20th century?

Ian Shin (Assistant Professor of History and American Culture, University of Michigan) will discuss how Charles Lang Freer’s genuine desire to learn about and care for Chinese art and antiquities positioned Michigan in the vanguard of what foreign policymakers today call “America’s Pacific Century.”

This event is co-sponsored by The Freer House/WSU and the DIA's Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures.