) -- - PRECliOU§ CARGOg THE LEGACY OF GERTRUDE BA§§ WARNER Essays by Lawrence Fong and Kathleen L. Metzger Edited by David A. Robertson 1997 University of Oregon Museum of Art Catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition Precious Cargo: The Legacy of Gertrude Bass Warner June 14-September 28, 1997 This exhibition was made possible through the generosity of Lee World Travel, and the Ballinger Family in memory of Court Ballinger. Cover: Gertrude Bass Warner, Colonel Murray Warner and Guide on their houseboat Illinois. Inside Cover: The New Map of Shanghai City, 1909. Copyright 1997 University of Oregon ISBN: 0--87114--263--5 ]~TROD'uCT IO:'\' Gertrude Bass Warner's premise was a simple by UOMA Associate Director Lawrence Fong, II one. Arr is nor only a transcendental and universal places Warner's acquisitive nature in the broader language, bur also the deepest, broadest, and best context of collecting and connoisseurship during of all cultural expressions. With char in mind, her rime. Combined, these rwo essays offer this she postulated char ir is possible to come to an museum's reflections upon this remarkable person, appreciative understanding of a distant, foreign her achievements, and her legacy co Oregon and the culture through arr. She concluded that chis entire Pacific Rim. heightened sensiriviry could very well result in a It would be difficult co underestimate the impact feeling of kinship, "amity and mutual helpfulness" of Gertrude Bass Warner upon the mission of the around the globe. University of Oregon Museum of Arr, or for chat If Warner's premise is simple, her expression of matter, upon the university, state, and region. Her it is nothing shore of visionary- to build a museum approach co studying Asian arr and culture helped of Asian art on the Pacific Coast of the United Scates give birth to rhe university's renowned Asian where the core activity would be to promote peace Studies Program. On another level, the Museum through knowledge. Ir is chis founding sixty-five has continuously stood as a reminder co the years ago of the University of Oregon Museum University of Oregon's many Asian and Asian­ of Arr, char we celebrate in chis publication and American students of chis institution's deep and through its related exhibition and public events. abiding respect for the cultures of Asia, profoundly "Precious Cargo: The Legacy of Gertrude during those rimes of war and political divisiveness Bass Warner" is a celebration of the life of a chat have taken place throughout this century. remarkable individual and an opportunity to In addition, the Museum's Asian arr collections renew our commitment to the University of have served as backdrop to a series of changing Oregon Museum of Arc's historical role of gazing exhibitions- most recently "New Arr in China" across the Pacific Ocean, and by doing chat, and "The Fragrance of Ink: Korean Literati Painting opening a vase and multi-paned window upon from the Chason Dynasty." These exhibitions our ever-closer neighbors in Asia. have brought a better understanding co the region, In the essays and illustrations char follow, you not only of our cultural and social, bur also of our will be given a glimpse of rwo central aspects of growing political and economic relations with Asia. Gertrude Bass Warner's remarkable life. "The Gertrude Bass Warner's broad vision is ours; it Traveler," written by University of Oregon graduate has defined and sustained chis institution for over student Kathleen L. Metzger, explores a defining six decades and continues co serve as a guiding light factor in Gertrude Warner's life- her extended as we enter the next century. journeys around the globe. Engaging a bright student in chis manner is very much in keeping David A. Robertson with Gertrude Bass Warner's vision of the use of the Director collection she left to us. "The Collector," written ACKKO'WLEDGME::\'T§ The story of Gertrude Bass Warner has been told designed the evocative installation; and Laura Aaron before by others. Virginia Haseltine, in her time a Sear and Laurel Intern Cynthia Friedman designed patron of the arts and the Museum of Art, preceded the exciting discovery room. us in her admiration of Gertrude Bass Warner's We wish to especially thank Lee World generosity. Board of Directors President Hope Travel, and the Ballinger Family in the memory of Hughes Pressman's study revealed Warner's strength Court Ballinger for their generous support of this of commitment to the University of Oregon. And, exhibition. We also acknowledge additional funding the complexities of funding the Museum of Art's from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National construction was unraveled by emeritus University Endowment for the Arts, and the Oregon Archivist Keith Richard. However, it is our hope Community Foundation. that this exhibition and catalogue focusing on Finally, we thank the research group which her travels, collecting, family and friends at the began this most recent study in the fall, 1996. University of Oregon and in Asia, will broaden the Margaret Gontrum, art history graduate student appreciation and understanding of the legacy of and Laurel intern Kathleen L. Metzger, Hattie Mae Gertrude Bass Warner. Nixon, and Barbara Zentner graciously contributed Several individuals provided invaluable their time, insight and knowledge. This group's assistance in helping us bring this program to collective effort developed the foundation for the fruition. Knight Library Special Collections exhibition, catalogue and programs. curator Bernard McTigue, librarian John Hawk, and records manager Sharla Davis guided us through an Lawrence Fong abundant archive of letters, diaries, manuscripts, Associate Director and Exhibition Curator memorabilia, photographs and rare books. James Baran, Publishing Solutions Group, handled the crucial task of editing, and the creative staff at lnovar Marketing and Design produced the Note to the Reader catalogue and all publications for Precious Cargo. Unless otherwise indicated, all works illustrated Recognition of the museum staff seems hardly are from the Murray Warner Collection of Oriental enough- without them ideas would not have been Art. Letters, diaries, personal ephemera, research shaped, produced and presented to the public. notes, vintage photographs and other documents Among them, Maureen Keefe developed our vital are in the Gertrude Bass Warner Archive, Special relationships with the community; Heather Brown Collections section, Knight Library. organized the production of the elegant publications Japanese and Chinese personal names appear in and extensive publicity; Richard Gehrke handled traditional style, with family names preceding given the photography with sensitivity, and rendered the names. The pinyin style is used for Chinese vintage photographs into contemporary formats; romanization except where Wade-Giles is quoted Catherine Kenyon and Jean Nattinger handled the from original sources. intricacies of registration; Kurt Neugebauer T J-JE TRAVELER "I have no patience with people who set out on Empire.2 The architecture, now being restored, was their adventures, determined to live as nearly as a grand style with clock towers, domes, columns, possible just as they do at home, stopping at hotels and four-square buildings rising like sentries along that strive to reproduce all the comforts and luxuries the banks of the Huangpu. British and German, they could find in their own countries, and seeing French and American boats of all types plowed up and learning nothing whatever of the real life of the and down the river, loading and unloading cargo people they are among." 1 along the Bund. Banks with names like Mercantile and Chartered Bank, Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris, Gertrude Bass Warner was an avid lifelong and the Oriental Agra provided evidence of traveler (figure 1). During the course of her life she Shanghai's thriving commerce and international traversed the United States and Europe and made colony.3 numerous trips to war-torn Asia. She began her Shanghai was, and in many ways still is, the adventures at a young age- walks through the ashes most cosmopolitan city in China. In Gertrude Warner's time it was the home of businessmen, entrepreneurs, and soldiers of many nationalities. Census figures show that 911 Americans lived in Shanghai in 1905. Gertrude was one of the 500 additional Americans who arrived in Shanghai between 1904 and 1905. By 1915 there were well over 18,000 foreigners residing there, with British residents the largest number, followed by Japanese.4 The international flavor of the city stemmed from a decades-long history of foreign trade presence in China, with Shanghai the principal center. In 1840 the Chinese government granted of the Chicago Fire, voyages on her private foreign nations the right to create their own houseboat on the Yangtze River, a close brush communities around the old Chinese city, where with the army of a Chinese warlord, strolls they were allowed to lease land in perpetuity.5 through mysterious Angkor, attendance at the These settlements had grown rapidly, dwarfing the Pacific Relations Conference in Kyoto, and visits to old walled city. Shanghai had become a foreigners' museums in the United States and Asia. Her travels city, not simply because there was so much land enabled her to become not just a collector of art under their control, but also because foreign objects but a collector of culture. Gertrude's residents enjoyed extraterritoriality. British, French, "Precious Cargo" not only consisted of a large and Americans were subject to their own law, not collection of Asian art and artifacts, but also a that of the Chinese, within the foreign concessions. scholarly reference library that articulated the In addition, Chinese living and working there were objects' importance, dozens of boxes of lantern slides, first-hand knowledge that she willingly shared, and an exemplary wealth of experience atypical for an individual of any era.