Page 105 - Collecting and Displaying China's Summer Palace in the West

90 James Scott

Figure 6.1 The Second Opium War case. Reproduced by permission of the Royal Engineers
Museum, Library & Archive.

case, as in Figure 6.1, the other two China cases feature directly behind, on the left
and right.
The Second Opium War case is located within a rough chronological arrangement
of the Victorian period; after a section on the Crimean War (1853–1856) and before
two other China cases that focus on Gordon and the Taiping Rebellion. The inter -
pretation gives a very brief explanation of the history of the Opium Wars, but sets
it very much in the context of Gordon’s first encounter with China prior to his
command of the “Ever Victorious Army” during the Taiping Rebellion. The nearest
text panel to the Second Opium War case serves as a biography of Gordon, detail -
ing his experiences. The panel mentions that “General Gordon . . . is probably our
most famous Royal Engineer.” It includes a small section on the principle events of
Gordon’s life. While the Second China War is mentioned it does not refer to the
Summer Palace.
These text panels were created in 2001; the original panels were updated from
when the museum opened in 1987, very much drawing on the information from the
originals. The interpretation within the case that labels the Summer Palace objects is
more recent—around five years old. The title on the case object label is “The Second
China War 1859–1860 and the Destruction of the Summer Palace.” The reason why
Gordon’s name does not feature here is due to the fact that the majority of the objects
in this case were taken by Richard Harrison. Another reason for this is that this label
has been written with greater sensitivity and with a more contemporary approach.
The curator clearly had two groups in mind while writing it; those who would
seek the repatriation of the objects, and those who hold Gordon, the Corps and