vegetable peeler

Vegetable peeler with a bamboo handle, fitted at one end with a row of steel loops with a steel band at the other end.

Rev. Robert John Davidson (1864-1942) and his wife Mary Jane Davidson (1847-1918) were Quaker missionaries at the Friends' Foreign Mission Association in Chungking, Szechuan, China from 1890-1894. As well as being a missionary, Mary was a trained nurse and midwife and helped the local community. She is probably responsible for the large number of items in the Museum's collection which relate to women and children. In 1895 the Davidsons returned to Britain, where they toured the country lecturing at Quaker meetings about Chinese life and customs. During these lectures they would dress up and act out aspects of Chinese life, their 6 year old son Robin demonstrating the use of chopsticks, for example. A collection of Chinese objects was used to illustrate their lectures. While in Britain they visited The Horniman Museum and spoke with Frederick Horniman, himself a Quaker, who bought 338 items of their collection for £81.00. They returned to China in 1896 and spent about forty years there altogether. See Levell, N., The Translation of Objects: R and M Davidson and the Friend's Foreign Mission Association, China, 1890-1894. In Shelton, A., ed., (2001) Collectors: Individuals and Institutions. The Horniman Museum & Gardens. pp.129-162.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database retains language taken from historical documents to help research. Please note that some records may feature language and reflect systems of thinking that are outdated and offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections, can suggest corrections to our information or if you see content requiring immediate action, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk