Review | Opium: The Business of Addiction by Forbes House Museum
While researching for the Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical installment “Prologue, 2 Concerning Pipeweed”, I came across an online exhibit hosted by Forbes House Museum, a historic house in nearby Milton, MA not far from Historic New England’s Eustis Estate, which I last visited in December 2022 and posted about exactly a year ago. This straightforward, to the point exhibit presents a candid look to one wealthy American family’s contribution to addiction and war in China during the Qing Dynasty, or late 18th to mid-19th century. The exhibit give a quick introduction and museum statement before diving into six topics concerning the China trade.
Introduction & Museum Statement
In 1784, American merchants began their trade with China in a range of products, including tea, porcelain, and opium. A long list of Boston Brahmin families — a term once used for wealthy Anglo-Americans who ran the government in colonial, federalist, and early constitutional America — increased their already substantial fortunes through this trade. This list included the Adamses (relatives of presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams), Cabots and Lodges (relatives of politician Henry Cabot Lodge), and Coolidges (relatives of president Calvin Coolidge).
After the quick intro, the museum warned viewers that opium and the opium trade was bad, the the Forbes family built their beautiful house using money gained from this bad thing. People who are or know someone who is fighting addiction might not want to proceed. The museum even included an additional blue pop-up to warn about the contents of the exhibit. While the warnings appreciated, I did not find the contents of the exhibit as distressing as other exhibits on similar material, such as the exhibit on ritualist cohoba inhalation at Museo del Hombre Dominicano in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Topic 1: Global China Trade
This quick overview of the China trade included a map showing the route from Boston to Guangzhou, formerly called Canton. However, the text was difficult to read due to low contrast, and the image was too large to be fully seen on the screen. Adjusting the zoom had no effect, and while opening the image in a new tab did allow for closer inspection, the image was of low resolution despite its size. This complaint aside, I appreciated the explanation of the stop in Smyrna, Turkey to source opium; the monopoly that the British East India Company had in India; and American commodities like Appalachian Ginseng, Polynesian sandalwood, and silver from Central and South America.
Topic 2: Smuggling & Consumption of Opium
After some technical information about how New England trading ships traveled from the Portuguese colony of Macau near Hong Kong before cruising up the Pearl River to the harbor at Canton, the exhibit presented devastating facts about opium addiction in China. In 1838, approximately 33% of Chinese people were thought to be addicted to opium. The number did not change much by the early 20th century, when an estimated 27% of men were addicted. Addiction was an issue in the United States as well, where derivatives of opium such as morphine, heroin, and laudanum were legal until the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 (incorrectly listed in the exhibit as 1904).
Topic 3: Forbes Family Business
The Forbes family was large and started with a man whose name was not Forbes. Thomas Handasyd Perkins traded opium, enslaved Africans, and furs to make his fortune, which he turned into donations for the Perkins School for the Blind, Boston Athenaeum, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Bunker Hill Monument. His nephew and adopted son, John Perkins Cushing, lived in China for thirty years to facilitate trade, while his sister, Margaret Perkins Forbes, had eight children to her seemingly no good husband, three of which — Thomas, Ben, and John Murray — joined their uncle at Perkins & Co.
Topic 4: Chinese Exports & Forbes Family Wealth
This section mainly reviewed what was found in previous sections. Chinese porcelain became called “china”, with designs specifically made for European and American customers. Ben loved his custom-made porcelain and his silver coffeepot that he won in a regatta, which he wrote about in a letter to his wife, Rose Greene Smith Forbes. I might have combined this topic with the Topic 3.
Topic 5: Commissioner Lin Zexu, the “Century of Humiliation,” and Ethnocentrism in the China Trade
Perhaps the most interesting part of the exhibit was this explanation of government leadership after the First and Second Opium Wars, called the “Century of Humiliation” in China. These events caused a nationwide hatred of capitalism and European colonialism, although not all Chinese felt the same. Wealthy trader Houqua befriended the Forbes brothers and regularly invited them to his house. In contrast, the Daoguang Emperor was desperate to stop the opium trade, as his government was deteriorating, and his son had recently died from overdose. Commissioner Lin Zexu, also known as Yuanfu, created some of the earliest anti-drug policies in 1839, ordered the destruction of all opium in Canton Harbor, and penned an open letter to Queen Victoria begging her to stop the trade.
Topic 6: Philanthropy and Lasting Effects of the Opium Trade
This trade did eventually end, but not after 90 million Chinese were addicted and the Forbes family increased their fortunes. Ben must have read the open letter, as a letter to Rose in October 1839 revealed his rejection of the opium trade. The Forbes brothers gave supplies to the Massachusetts 54th Regiment of Colored Troops in the Civil War and worked with the New England Relief Committee to send food to Ireland during the Great Hunger. The exhibit ended without a further summary or conclusion.
My Own Conclusion
This quick read gave a comprehensive overview of the history of the opium trade in China and its overlap with the history of the family, along with providing maps, portraits, and photographs of trade items. Throughout the exhibit were critical thinking questions, appropriate for families or classes. The exhibit went by so quickly, and with no “learn more” or “sources cited” sections that I wondered if the curators had conducted any further research on the topic. Support for the exhibit came from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mass Humanities, and Beth Israel Deaconess Milton, indicating that any research would have been well-funded. My biggest accessibility difficulty with the exhibit was the size of the text, which was at 12pt even with my browser font size set to large, I had to zoom to 150% for comfortable readability. Overall, this was a decent overview for anyone interested in learning about the history opium as related to Chinese-American trade but without a lot of time to do so.
Abby Epplett’s Rating System
Experience: 7/10
Accessibility: 6/10