Tea cups with lids owned by the Wong family. Made in Jingdezhen, China, 1938.
In the nearly 50 years since the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology has been in its present location, the Museum has hosted approximately 150 temporary exhibitions. In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islanders Month, this month we feature Maxwell Museum exhibitions that looked at AAPI communities and contributions to the New Mexico and the world.
In preparation for the MMA’s 2016 exhibition, Earth, Fire, and Life: Six Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics, museum staff led by Curator of Archaeology Dave Phillips developed the online exhibition China Then and Now: Ceramics as a Path to Chinese History and Culture. The exhibition features ceramics from the collection of Albuquerque artist Eason Eige (many since donated to the Maxwell Museum), as well as presenting general background on Chinese archaeology and history and information on the Chinese diaspora in New Mexico.
The exhibition section titled “Personal Stories: The New Mexico Connection” features objects that belong to Chinese-American families with deep roots in Albuquerque. Family members share stories of the objects and their relatives who came to New Mexico in the first have of the 20th century, revealing some of the many contributions of Chinese-American families to the rich, multi-cultural history of Albuquerque and New Mexico.
To learn more about the personal stories behind the objects Personal Stories: The New Mexico Connection
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