John Hadley Cox Archaeological Study Collection

Detail of a pattern

At A Glance

View Digital Content on SOVA
  • Creator

    Cox, John Hadley, 1913-2005
  • Dates

    circa 1936-1939
  • Physical Description

    105 Lantern slides (approximate count)
  • Collection ID

    FSA.A1991.07
  • EDAN ID

    ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1991-07
  • Scope and Contents

    Lantern slides taken in the mid to late 1930s pertaining to objects in Mr. Cox's collection, namely ceramics, bronzes, lacquer, and figures found at archaeological sites in Changsha, Hunan province of China, dating primarily from the Zhou and Han Dynasties and from the Warring States period. Also includes lantern slides and glass plate negatives of the Chu silk manuscripts and a 16mm film (and beta cam copy) of the 1935 Dragon Boat Festival at Changsha.
  • Biographical / Historical

    John Hadley Cox (b. 1913) was a collector of Chinese archaeological ceramic, pottery and bronze vessels, predominantly from the Ch'angsha region of Hunan Province, South Central China. Upon graduating from Yale University in 1935, he spent two years teaching at Yale University's Yale-in-China program in Changsha. In 1991, Mr.Cox also donated 106 potsherds of Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Chinese origin to the Freer Gallery Study Collection. Mr. Cox also left numerous items of his collection to the art gallery of his alma mater.
  • Creator

    Cox, John Hadley, 1913-2005
  • Place

    Changsha (Hunan Sheng, China)
    China -- Hunan Province -- Changsha
  • Topic

    Archaeology -- China -- Antiquities
    Ceramics -- China
    Pottery -- China
    Bronzes, Chinese
    Lacquer and lacquering -- China
  • See more items in

    John Hadley Cox Archaeological Study Collection
  • Custodial History

    Photographs donated by John Hadley Cox, 1991. Film donated by John Hadley Cox, 1992.
  • Archival Repository

    Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
  • Type

    Collection descriptions
    Archival materials
    Lantern slides
  • Citation

    John Hadley Cox Archaeological Study Collection. FSA.A1991.07. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
  • Arrangement

    This collection is arranged into 18 series:

    Series 1: Tombs & grave at Changsha (Hunan Province), 1936-1937

    Series 2: Changsha Exhibition (Yale, 1939)

    Series 3: Objects from the same Chu Tomb, Changsha

    Series 4: Bronze vessels

    Series 5: Bronze objects

    Series 6: Bronze mirrors

    Series 7: Bronze object

    Series 8: Chu pottery

    Series 9: Han and later ceramics

    Series 10: Chu wooden "Zhenmushou"

    Series 11: Chu wooden burial figures

    Series 12: Other Chu wooden pieces

    Series 13: Chu lacquer pieces

    Series 14: Lacquer pattern

    Series 15: Others

    Series 16: Chu silk manuscript

    Series 17: Unidentified Slides

    Series 18: Dragon Boat Festival Film
  • Rights

    Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
  • Genre/Form

    Lantern slides
  • Restrictions

    Collection is open for research.

Repository Contact

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
National Museum of Asian Art Archives
Washington, D.C. 20013
AVRreference@si.edu