Description:
architecture; landscape
Label Text:
To celebrate the reopening of Ginling College in 1983, its alumnae association gave Smith College this painting depicting Ginling’s main campus. Ding Zhan, a Nanjing artist who taught traditional ink painting at Nanjing Normal University, was invited to paint this portrait of the main campus, which consists of seven major buildings. The central social and athletic building is located to the west, flanked by two student dormitories. They are connected by covered walkways to other buildings in the courtyard, including the science and chapel buildings to the south and the recitation and library buildings to the north.
Founded by five American Christian missionary boards, Ginling College opened its doors to students in 1915 and soon became the most influential women’s college in modern China. In 1919, Matilda C. Thurston (1875–1958), the first president of Ginling College and a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (class of 1896), commissioned the American architect Henry Murphy (1877–1954) to design Ginling’s new campus. (Murphy was later hired by Chiang Kai-shek to transform old Nanjing into a modern capital for the Republic of China.) Murphy and his architects adapted Chinese traditional architectural styles and compositions and incorporated Christian symbols and Beaux-Arts principles. Finished in 1923, this building complex became one of Nanjing’s architectural landmarks and is now preserved as an important historical heritage in China.
For more than three decades, Smith College was a supporter and model for Ginling College, providing it with financial and academic support until 1951. Enthusiastic Smith alumnae installed a Ginling representative in every Smith club in America and contributed at least one-fourth of Ginling’s operating budget for years. Smith alumnae also raised $50,000 to cover the entire cost of the social and athletic building, the central building on Ginling’s campus. F.Zhang
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2012.25 |
