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Isabella Stewart Gardner was a world traveler. Though perhaps best-known as a frequent visitor to Italy, particularly Venice, she also traveled across Asia with her husband Jack from 1883 to 1884. Isabella was on the vanguard of 19th-century travel, going further afield than most of her friends and peers. She was careful to document her long journeys in both written journals and collaged travel albums.
Not only are these albums creative, but they also provide the chance to present concrete information about her travel and experiences abroad. Drawing on these sources, this post focuses on her trip to China, which is extensively recorded in both a journal and in two collaged travel albums (which you can view here and here).
Isabella arrived in Shanghai from Japan in the autumn of 1883. From her first day in what she referred to as the Middle Kingdom (a literal translation of a traditional Chinese name for China), Isabella recorded almost everything she saw. Her elaborate travel albums included pictures of sights she visited, street scenes and “characteristic” local people. (These subjects were typical of commercial travel photographs sold to tourists and visitors from around the globe during the 19th century.) She also pasted in papers like calling cards and the occasional pressed flower or plant. The resulting albums are beautiful blends of visual and found sources.
Using the travel albums and journals, Gardner Museum Gallery Ambassador Isabella Veeramani (yes, she has the same first name as our founder!) recently started to map the path the Gardners took through China. The map below shows all the different cities the couple visited—each point on the map is labeled with both the name Isabella used to describe her destinations and each city’s romanized contemporary name.
Map created by Isabella Veeramani
Map of cities and towns Isabella Stewart Gardner visited in China in 1883, labeled with contemporary place names and names used by Isabella in her travel albums and journals
The couple’s ultimate goal was to reach Beijing, which Isabella and other Americans called Peking at the time. It was still hard for travelers to access the city in the 1880s. From Shanghai, Jack and Isabella had to travel both by boat and by mule to reach their destination. Once in Beijing, they were invited to stay at the American legation. The diplomat Chester Holcombe (1844–1912), who dedicated his career to dispelling stereotypes about Chinese people, showed them around the city and sights in the area, including the Great Wall of China.
Isabella Stewart Gardner (American, 1840–1925), Travel Diary: China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Myanmar, Egypt, and Italy, 1883-1884, page 5
Isabella listed many sites that she visited in Beijing, as we can see mapped onto the city’s present-day plan. She was a busy sightseer!
Map created by Isabella Veeramani
Map of sites that Isabella Stewart Gardner visited in Beijing in 1883
Her descriptions of her time spent in the city are evocative. Consider this entry in her journal from September 24, 1883:
“A short spell of curio dealers then off…to the Gate Qianmen [a gate previously in Tiananmen Square] opposite the entrance into the Imperial City. Had [a] good view from there. Yellow tiles glistening everywhere. … the Clerk of the Legation…took us to see the Temple of Confucius, the Pavilion of Kien Lung [Qianlong] and beautiful arch, then to Lama Temple. The latter of strange and very interesting architecture – court after court – all the Lamas in yellow cloaks and such strange yellow hats. Services going on, one of them in open court, consisting of odd chanting in very low voices, with an accompaniment of clapping together two pieces of wood. In one of their temples a very large gilded Buddha, standing. In another beautiful T[i]betan carpets and cloisonné altar decorations. On way back stopped at native Chinese Tea Shop, celebrated for tea and cakes, both delicious. At home just in time for dinner.”
One of the travel albums includes an image of the arch with yellow tiles that she saw on that day.
Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), Travel Album: China, 1883, page 10
The Museum collection also still includes some of the “curios” that Isabella purchased in China—possibly on that same September day—like this opium box.
Chinese, Opium Box, 1883
As we learn more about the Gardners’ travels throughout China, we hope to draw more connections between these trips and the objects preserved in the Museum. Ambassador Isabella has already mapped other sightseeing trips that they took in China to cities like Guangzhou, and we are excited to learn more about the routes the Gardners took on their journeys.
Map created by Isabella Veeramani
Map of sites that Isabella Stewart Gardner visited in Guangzhou in 1883