H. Richard Dietrich III will discuss the upcoming Summer 2025 exhibition at the Lyman Allyn Museum of Art in New London, Connecticut, entitled China from China. The show features porcelain and stories from early U.S. trade with China, focusing on Connecticut connections and stories.
The first version of this show was a widely popular exhibit in Washington, DC at the Chinese American Museum which ran from Spring of 2022 to winter of 2023. The show tells the story of America first meeting China through paintings, porcelain, and other artifacts. The humble beginnings of this trade grew into a key driver of economic growth in the United Staes, particularly in New England, and continues today, now the most important trading relationship the world has ever seen. The results of trade partnerships between American individuals and individuals within the Chinese system of commerce reverberated around the globe and through history, with opium as a complicated part of this story.
Many of the objects in the show come from the Dietrich American Foundation. The foundation was established in 1963 and focuses on 18th century American fine and decorative art. The foundation works with museums and cultural institutions to support their collections primarily through loans of objects, with the Philadelphia Museum of Art as its closest partner. A 2020 book, entitled In Pursuit of History, describes this collection and history with essays exploring the formation of the collection and its many areas of strength, enhancing current understandings of colonial history and material culture. The book was published in association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and distributed by Yale Press.
Richard Dietrich is on the board of the Dietrich American Foundation and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with his wife and two daughters.
H Richard Dietrich, Jr. Foundation Collection.
Photo: H. Richard Dietrich III