![Canal Street Subway Station Mural
Though there is no plaque next to the wall of iconographic tiles, this display is part of a 1998 station-wide installation by Bing Lee called “Empress Voyage 2/27/1784.” Each tile is meant to symbolize a type of merchandise that began arriving in 18th-century New York on boats from China.
While NYCSubway.org’s record of the piece suggests the project’s title describes the arrival of the first Chinese trading ship, a little cross-reference places February 1784 as the departure of America’s first trading voyage to China. That ship was named “Empress of China.”
From skimming The history of early relations between the United States and China, 1784-1844:
Here [the Empress of China] met a French ship and in company with her proceeded to China, anchoring at Whampoa, the harbor of Canton, August 28th. The Chinese after a little trouble learned to distinguish the Americans from the English, calling them “the New People.”](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kt492kKTFY1qztwz7o1_500.jpg "Canal Street Subway Station Mural
Though there is no plaque next to the wall of iconographic tiles, this display is part of a 1998 station-wide installation by Bing Lee called “Empress Voyage 2/27/1784.” Each tile is meant to symbolize a type of merchandise that began arriving in 18th-century New York on boats from China.
While NYCSubway.org’s record of the piece suggests the project’s title describes the arrival of the first Chinese trading ship, a little cross-reference places February 1784 as the departure of America’s first trading voyage to China. That ship was named “Empress of China.”
From skimming The history of early relations between the United States and China, 1784-1844:
Here [the Empress of China] met a French ship and in company with her proceeded to China, anchoring at Whampoa, the harbor of Canton, August 28th. The Chinese after a little trouble learned to distinguish the Americans from the English, calling them “the New People.”")
Canal Street Subway Station Mural
Though there is no plaque next to the wall of iconographic tiles, this display is part of a 1998 station-wide installation by Bing Lee called “Empress Voyage 2/27/1784.” Each tile is meant to symbolize a type of merchandise that began arriving in 18th-century New York on boats from China.
While NYCSubway.org’s record of the piece suggests the project’s title describes the arrival of the first Chinese trading ship, a little cross-reference places February 1784 as the departure of America’s first trading voyage to China. That ship was named “Empress of China.”
From skimming The history of early relations between the United States and China, 1784-1844:
Here [the Empress of China] met a French ship and in company with her proceeded to China, anchoring at Whampoa, the harbor of Canton, August 28th. The Chinese after a little trouble learned to distinguish the Americans from the English, calling them “the New People.”
