Die chinesische Büchersammlung Caleb Cushings (1800-1879) in der Library of Congress

The Library of Congress in Washington D.C. owns one of the largest collections of Chinese books outside of China. The beginning was modest: The first ten works arrived at the Library in 1869 and were a present by the Chinese Government. A major increase was due to the acquisition, in 1879, of the collection of Caleb Cushing (1800-1879), who represented Massachusetts in Congress and was sent to China by President Tyler in 1843 to secure for the United States the same privileges that were granted to the UK in the Treaty of Nanjing (Cushing's treaty is known as the Treaty of Wangxia, Zhong-Mei Wangxia tiaoyue 中美望廈條約, 1844). Cushing thought it might be helpful to learn Chinese for this purpose, and therefore he started on this difficult task during his voyage and the time he was kept waiting in China. Cushing noticed soon that the time was too short to master Chinese, and therefore he switched to Manchu. This worked better, and he was able to impress his host, the Governor-general Kiying 耆英 (who was Manchu) by his language command. Anyhow, given his interest in both languages he acquired a sizeable collection of books which was either bought, or received as a donation, by the Library of Congress after his death. The present article reproduces the catalogue of Cushing's Chinese books, which was prepared by an immigrant from Galicia, Louis C. Solyom (1836-1913), who was hired as a cataloguer by the Library, on account of his knowledge of several languages, especially Russian. Small wonder, he became the responsible expert also for the Chinese and Manchu collection. Assistance was provided by the Chinese embassy but the handwriting of the manuscript catalogue is not Chinese - apparently Solyom received only oral instruction from the Chinese diplomats. There are a few errors and misunderstandings in the description of the books but on the whole it must be considered a major achievement. For the present publication the catalogue, which lists 237 works, was annotated and provided with a Pinyin title index; it gives an impression of Cushing's interests and of what was available on the book market in Macao in 1843 and offers further information on the development of the Chinese collection of the Library of Congress.