Discover the Herman Collection of Modern Chinese Woodcuts

The Herman Collection of Modern Chinese Woodcuts contains over 200 works made in China between 1937 and 1948. They were given to Picker Art Gallery by Professor Emeritus Theodore Herman, who lived in the country during this period, and his wife, Evelyn Mary Chen Shiying Herman. Professor Herman taught at Colgate from 1954 to 1981 in the Geography Department and was the founding director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program.

The prints are direct links to the historical events taking place in China in the years leading up to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Produced in both Nationalist- and Communist-controlled regions during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), many prints chronicle the progress of the war, promote good relations between the army and the people, encourage resistance against the Japanese, and illustrate how Chinese society could be transformed through socialism. Prints produced during the Civil War (1945–1948) expose many injustices amid the post-war social and political upheavals. Finally, many of the images explore wide-ranging subjects and a variety of techniques that offer glimpses into quotidian Chinese life during this period.