Main Page

This I Believe is a five-minute CBS Radio Network program, originally hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow from 1951 to 1955. The show encourages both famous and everyday people to write short essays about their own personal motivation in life and then read them on the air. This I Believe became a cultural phenomenon that stressed individual belief rather than religious dogma. Its popularity both developed and waned within the era of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Cold War.
A half-hour European version of This I Believe ran from 1956 to 1958 over Radio Luxembourg. It has since been revived numerous times, first by Dan Gediman and Jay Allison on NPR from 2005-2009, and subsequently by Preston Manning on Canada's CBC Radio One in 2007. Essays that appear on the show are available free of charge at its website.
Since 2009, the original This I Believe programs have been syndicated as part of PRI's Bob Edwards Weekend.
History
Background
The idea for This I Believe flowed from both the WWII broadcasting experiences of Edward R. Murrow (who had spent of the latter 1930s and most of 1940s in the United Kingdom and continental Europe), and the emerging Cold War hostility with the Soviet Union.
During Murrow's stay in London he had become a friend of the WWII British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (who had an American mother and British father), and this enabled him to introduce Churchill to William S. Paley, who was his boss at CBS. During WWII Paley spent much of his time in London working in the Psychological Warfare Branch of the Office of War Information (OWI), which included redirecting the transmitters of Radio Luxembourg following the liberation of the Grand Duchy, for use as a black propaganda station (Radio 1212). Meanwhile, Murrow had "covered the London air raids from the streets and rooftops ...went on 25 bombing missions over Germany and broadcast from a British minesweeper in World War II." (See TIME magazine, Monday, September 30, 1957:: This is Murrow) This close relationship between Murrow, Paley, CBS and the British Establishment led to an offer after the War for Murrow to become part of the editorial diarchy at the British Broadcasting Corporation, an offer that was not endorsed by the BBC Board of Directors.
Murrow returned to the USA which was in a growing Cold War with its former WWII partner, the Soviet Union. During these years of the late 1940s and early 1950s, political paranoia involving a Communist conspiracy was flowing from Washington, DC and it eventually came to be led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. Paley who came from a CBS/OWI background also became a firm supporter of the new Central Intelligence Agency after the War and allowed some of his part-time CBS newsmen to serve as CIA agents. His own Paley Foundation also became engaged in laundering money for the CIA and Paley allowed the creation of a CBS blacklist and Murrow was among the first to sign a CBS loyalty affirmation. (See pages 303-307, In All His Glory: The life of WIlliam S. Paley.) At the same time the Pledge of Allegiance was being repackaged amid controversy as a general test of American loyalty at large, and it was into this climate of fear and agitation that Murrow introduced his new radio program: This I Believe.
Murrow's style of presentation had been influenced by a teacher of speech named Ida Lou Anderson. She suggested that he should become more concise in his opening presentations on radio. Cesar Saerchinger, his predecessor at CBS Europe had introduced his broadcasts with: "Hello America. This is London calling." Murrow abbreviated his own opening remarks to "This...is London" and he soon began adapting the prefix "this" to many titles including "This... I Believe". James Earl Jones became one of many to adopt the Murrow style when he later announced: "This...is CNN". Murrow was not without his critics at CBS, and some of his colleagues had formed their own "Murrow-Ain't-God Club" (ibid TIME September 30, 1957.)
Development
According to Ward Wheelock who wrote a preface to the 1952 book, This I Believe was launched in 1949 at a business luncheon of four men (Murrow being one, with the other three left unnamed). He related that the reasons for the project "were obvious":
...the uncertainty of the economic future, the shadow of war, the atom bomb, army service for one's self or loved ones, the frustration of young people facing the future.
CBS series (1951–1955)
The original five-minute series began at WCAU in Philadelphia and was aired over the CBS Radio Network and 196 affiliated stations between 1951 and 1955. The Program Director was Edward P. Morgan who told potential contributors that This I Believe was a "non-religious" program and that it was not a forum for one contributor to attack the beliefs of another contributor. The actual time allotted to each contributor in order to allow for the introduction, closing and sponsorship of the program, was three and a half minutes. Novelist Kathleen Norris refused to participate on the grounds that "It's either a mawkish sermon, or it's indecent exposure." (See TIME magazine, Monday, December 1, 1952.)
This I Believe was also relayed by U.S. government funding over the Voice of America and the U.S. Armed Forces Network to listeners in 97 foreign countries. The BBC World Service, funded by the British Foreign Office, relayed the program to Australia.
A print version of the show appeared in 85 U.S. newspapers where contributors were asked to submit essays containing no more than 600 words. The U.S. State Department offered these editions to foreign newspapers in 97 nations with which the USA had diplomatic relations.
In 1952 Simon & Schuster published This I Believe: Written for, and with a foreword by Edward R. Murrow and edited by Edward P. Morgan. Its cover stated that it contained: ...the personal philosophies of one hundred thoughtful men and women.

A cover description of its contents stated that:  ...this book is the further extension of an idea that has already exploded into the most widely listened to radio program in the world. That idea is simple. It is that men and women will live happier and richer lives if they deliberately decide what they want from life— what they want in material things and the relative importance of moral and spiritual things. You, like most people, undoubtedly have certain rules by which you run your life. But, again like most people, you've probably never tried to formulate them, even to yourself. That's where the men and women in this book differ from you. They have at least tried to do so. They have "looked in their hearts and written," humbly and hesitantly, upon the invitation of the distinguished radio and television news analyst, Edward R. Murrow. "After all," says he, "the only way of discovering what people believe is to ask them." What these thoughtful people, in all walks of life, have written is here for you to read and ponder, and perhaps to emulate— in this collection of the 100 of the best of the personal philosophies of life which Mr. Murrow has discovered among the many hundreds contributed to This I Believe - on the air and in newspapers.
Radio Luxembourg series (1956–1958)
When the original American series ended, This I Believe was broadcast by Radio Luxembourg as a half-hour show over its famous 208 wavelength. It was described in programme listings as "the human drama programme telling of faith in times of trouble and adversity", and "the programme that brings you human drama and tells the story of people where courage and belief form an integral part of their life." While the 208 wavelength schedule of Radio Luxembourg was aimed at serving the British Isles with a commercial radio station format of American shows that were not provided by the monopoly of the non-commercial BBC, its actual audience covered much of Europe and beyond via its simultaneous transmissions over 49.26 meters in the Shortwave Band.
The first English language European series of This I Believe began on September 16, 1956 at 9:30 PM on Sundays under the sponsorship of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, Ltd. It was hosted by Sir Basil Bartlett who had a part in British WWII propaganda films. The script was written by James Carhatt and Nicholas Winter.
A second series began on October 6, 1957 and presented by host James McKechnie with research by Susan Franks and script written by James Eastwood.
The third series was hosted by Richard Hurndall and began on October 5, 1958 with a script written by Paul Tabori. This last series concentrated upon the lives of celebrities such as Shirley Bassey, Vanessa Lee and T.E.B.Clark.
The series was produced by Monty Bailey-Watson in London where it was recorded by a unique process on to the audio tracks of film strips for later transmission from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The final series ended when American originated talk shows that had been heard on Radio Luxembourg, began to give way to the increasing demand for sponsored record programmes (which could be produced at a lower cost for higher revenue), in order to satisfy the British demand for recorded music that was not available on the BBC.
NPR series (2005–2009)
This I Believe is a weekly radio series that began airing April 2005 in the United States on National Public Radio produced by Dan Gediman and Jay Allison. It was independently produced by Dan Gediman and Jay Allison from 2005-2009 for the non-profit organization . The series invites individuals to write short essays about the core beliefs that guide their daily life. NPR aired these personal statements each week on their newsmagazine programs Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition Sunday and Tell Me More. On the February 16 episode, Allison announced that "our series will be finishing its four-year run in April." True to his word, the NPR series concluded on Sunday, April 26, 2009. However, the series continues with weekly segments on PRI's Bob Edwards Weekend and Sirius XM's The Bob Edwards Show (see below).
CBC series (2007)
CBC Radio One began airing its own version of the show on May 14, 2007. The first forty essays were commissioned from prominent Canadians, including Julie Payette, Rick Hansen and Joe Clark, although subsequent essays are invited from the public. The show is hosted by former politician Preston Manning.
PRI series (2009-present)
In May 2009, This I Believe, Inc. moved its broadcast operations to the Public Radio International (PRI) program Bob Edwards Weekend and the related Sirius XM program The Bob Edwards Show.  These programs feature a weekly This I Believe segment which airs first on Fridays on Sirius XM then on the following weekend on PRI's Bob Edwards Weekend. From May 2009 until August 2010, Edwards each week interviewed This I Believe, Inc.'s Executive Director Dan Gediman about a different episode of Murrow's 1950s radio series, which was then heard in its entirety. Beginning in September 2010, Edwards has each week been airing a new contemporary This I Believe essay, written by one of the tens of thousands of listeners who have submitted essays to This I Believe, Inc. since the beginning of their public radio series in 2005.
Merchandise
Compilations of This I Believe essays were published from 1953 until 1996. The books were translated into several different languages and distributed internationally. Edward P. Morgan and John Marsden acted as editors for the original book series. A record titled This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Ten Living Americans, with commentary by Edward R. Murrow, was released along with the original books.
In 2006, a new book called This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women was published. It was a collection of sixty essays from the NPR series, plus twenty essays from Murrow's original series. Another book, This I Believe: On Love was published in 2010. It collects sixty new essays from public radio listeners on the subject of love. This I Believe: Life Lessons was published in October 2011. It is a collection of essays on the personal beliefs and guiding principals in American life.
See also
Edward R. Murrow, creator and original host of the program
Edward P. Morgan, original director of the program
CBS Radio Network

 on the podcast and public radio interview program

 - Democratic youth charity launched its own This I Believe essay project targeting youth around the world. Essays are posted on Global Youth Fund's website and distributed via podcast.

When did the radio program "This I Believe" first air?


The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-Saharan and Arab North Africa, 300,000 photographs, and 50,000 library volumes. It was the first institution dedicated to African art in the United States, and remains the largest collection. The Washington Post called the museum a mainstay in the international art world and the main venue for contemporary African art in the United States.
The museum was founded in 1964 by a Foreign Service officer and layman who bought African art objects in Germany and multiple houses in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in which to display them. The collection focused on traditional African art and an educational mission to teach black cultural heritage. To ensure the museum's longevity, the founder lobbied the national legislature to adopt the museum under the Smithsonian's auspices. It joined the Smithsonian in 1979 and became the National Museum of African Art two years later. A new, mostly underground museum building was completed in 1987, just off the National Mall and adjacent to other Smithsonian museums. It is among the Smithsonian's smallest museums.
The African art museum took a scholarly direction over the next twenty years, with less social programming. It collected traditional and contemporary works of historical importance. Exhibitions include works both internal and borrowed, and have ranged from solo artist to broad, survey shows. The museum hosts two to three temporary exhibitions and ten special events annually. Reviewers criticized the National Mall building's architecture, particularly its lack of natural light. The museum is scheduled for remodeling as part of the Smithsonian's upcoming South Mall project.
History

In the 1950s, American Foreign Service officer Warren M. Robbins collected African figures, masks, books, and textiles from German antique shops. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., in 1960, he purchased a house on Capitol Hill and opened his collection for viewing. Robbins, without museum, arts, or fundraising experience, believed that the collection could advance interracial civil rights and improve national respect for a major component of black cultural heritage. Starting in 1963, he expanded his Capitol Hill house museum into adjacent townhouses, including the former house of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The collections eventually occupied nine townhouses and over a dozen other properties near the Supreme Court Building.[1]
The museum was formally founded in 1964 as the Museum of African Art,[2][3] and its first show consisted of the collection and two outside pieces.[1] Under Robbins's tenure, the museum focused on traditional African art and its educational mission to teach black cultural heritage. It also served as a convivial meeting place for individuals interested in American racial politics, in keeping with the 1960s and '70s Black Arts Movement effort to change American perceptions towards African cultures.[4] Robbins referred to his museum as "an education department with a museum attached".[5] By 1976, the African art museum had a 20-person staff, 6,000-object collection, and Robbins had visited Africa for the first time.[1]
To ensure the museum's longevity, Robbins lobbied the national legislature (Congress) to absorb his museum into the Smithsonian Institution, a federal group of museums and research centers. The House of Representatives approved this plan in 1978 with backing from Representatives John Brademas, Lindy Boggs, Ron Dellums, the Congressional Black Caucus, and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.[1] The Smithsonian directors adopted the museum the next year[2] and began plans to move the collection from the townhouses into a proper museum.[6] In 1981, the museum was renamed the National Museum of African Art.[7][5]
In early 1983, Sylvia Williams became the museum's director. Later that year, the Smithsonian broke ground on a new, dedicated building for the African art museum on the National Mall. The complex was situated mostly underground, and expanded the museum's exhibition space[2] upon its September 1987 opening.[6][1][3] Over time, perspectives towards African art shifted from ethnographic interest to the study of traditional objects for their craftsmanship and aesthetic properties.[4] Williams took a scholarly, art historian approach to the museum, and pursued risky, high-cost pieces before their ultimate values were settled.[4] The collection expanded into contemporary works and works from Arab North Africa, beyond the traditional Sub-Saharan.[4] The museum's founder criticized this direction and felt that the institution was neglecting its public role for "esoteric scholarship".[8]
Following Williams's death in 1996, curator Roslyn Walker,[9][8] served as director from 1997 through her 2002 retirement.[4][10] Walker continued the direction of her predecessor and added a dedicated contemporary art gallery and curator.[4] She also created a development office, which raised money for an early 2000s renovation of the museum's pavilion.[10] Sharon Patton, former director of Oberlin College's Allen Memorial Art Museum, served as director between 2003 and 2008.[11][12] Her tenure included more shows targeting children and an advisory board mass resignation over Smithsonian leadership.[12]
Johnnetta Cole, an anthropologist and former president of Spelman and Bennett College, became the museum's director in 2009. Her tenure became associated with a controversial 2015 exhibit that featured works from comedian Bill Cosby's private collection just as allegations of sexual assault against him became public.[13] Two years earlier, the 2013 federal budget sequestration closed one of the museum's permanent exhibitions.[14] Cole retired in March 2017[15][16] and was succeeded by British filmmaker and curator Gus Casely-Hayford in February 2018.[17]
Administration

As of the late 2000s, The Washington Post wrote that the museum struggled with low attendance, modest budget, concealed location, and leadership turnovers.[18] Thirty years after joining the Smithsonian, the museum remains one of the smallest museums in the complex, with 213,000 visitors in 2016—about half of the 2009 count and less than one percent of the 28 million annual Smithsonian visitors.[13] This is due, in part, to its location, which is hidden from the National Mall by the original Smithsonian Institution Building, known as the Castle.[12] Visitor numbers have fluctuated between 200,000 and 400,000 since the 2000s,[12][13] and in the mid-2000s were comparable with its underground neighbor museum, the Sackler Gallery.[12] The museum's annual budget has fluctuated from $4.3 million (late 1990s)[10] to $6 million (mid-2000s),[12] and was $5 million in 2016.[13] By comparison, the museum had a 34-person staff in 2016,[13] down from 48 in the late 1990s.[8] Like many other museums in the 2000s, the institute has sought private funding and endowments.[4] It trailed behind other Smithsonian entities in fundraising campaigns, into which the museum was expected to pay about $2.1 million. In late 2016, the museum held its first annual African Arts Awards Dinner for over 500 guests.[13]
Architecture

The museum's National Mall building construction began in mid-1983. The project, which also included the Sackler Gallery for the Smithsonian's Asian art, created 368,000 square feet of exhibition space[2] at a cost of $73.2 million,[19][6] half of which from the federal government.[7] Almost all of this room was created underground so as not to affect the quadrangle's landmark Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle), its greenery, or its view.[6] The Smithsonian Castle hides the museum and South Quadrangle from the National Mall, which has contributed to the museum's lower attendance compared with other Mall attractions.[12] The quadrangle project's design architect was Jean-Paul Carlhian of Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott, based on a concept by Junzō Yoshimura.[19] The two new museums had little involvement in the architectural designs, which were drawn in the 1970s prior to their arrival.[6]
The African art and Sackler buildings were built as twin pavilions, each one story above ground and with similar display space: five galleries each, and only one with natural light. They are differentiated by their roof adornments: domes on the African art building and pyramids on the Sackler.[6] The African art pavilion was built in red granite and uses the circle shape as its architectural theme, with round windows, rounded entrance staircase, and six, round domes on its roof. Inside, a limestone foyer overlooks the gardens and a curving stair hall leads visitors down curving stairs to the galleries. The galleries are large and customized by exhibition designers into smaller rooms to better suit small objects.[19] The buildings are visible from Independence Avenue,[6] and the new Enid A. Haupt Garden runs between them and the Smithsonian Institution Building.[19] Underground, the museum and offices occupy the first two levels, and a third level hosts exhibition and educational rooms. Its levels are connected by a three-story[19] enclosed arcade with large skylights set into the gardens above, through several feet of dirt.[6] The pavilion was renovated in the early 2000s with a major donation from Eastman Kodak.[10]
The museum is scheduled for remodeling as part of the $2 billion Smithsonian South Mall project. Plans from the Danish architects, Bjarke Ingels Group, would replace the above-ground pavilion with new mall-facing entrances. The renovation is supported by private and federal investment, and was expected to begin in 2016 and finish in 10 to 20 years.[20] Yinka Shonibare's Wind Sculpture VII was put on permanent display outside the museum in late 2016.[21]
Collections

The National Museum of African Art was the first institution dedicated to African art in the United States,[6] followed by the New York-based Center for African Art (now The African Center) in 1984.[22] The National Museum's collection is larger. As of 2008, it consisted of 9,000 objects and 300,000 photographs. The objects range from 15th-century sculptures and masks to multi-media contemporary art, and the photographs include major contributions from photojournalists Eliot Elisofon and Constance Stuart Larrabee. Elisofon covered major 20th century events for Life, and Larrabee covered World War II and South African life.[4] As of 2004, the museum had 400 contemporary artworks.[4] The museum collects items for both their traditional uses and aesthetic values,[6] and receives an average of 67 gifts annually.[23] The breadth of its collections and special exhibitions made the museum "a solid force in the international art world" and the main venue for contemporary African art in the United States, according to The Washington Post.[4]
As the museum moved to the National Mall in the mid 1980s, its permanent collection consisted of more than 6,000 art objects (e.g., sculpture, artifacts, textiles) and the large Elisofon photography collection.[2] This original collection focused on Sub-Saharan Africa,[24] with better representation of the Guinea coast and Western Sudan than the Central African region.[2] The collection is idiosyncratic, reflecting the relative lack of colonial era African art acquisitions in American donor collections. Some early highlights of the museum's collection include an Edo–Portuguese ivory spoon and an Akan gold pendant bequeathed by the Robert Woods Bliss estate. The museum's first acquisitions budget came with joining the Smithsonian.[5]
Within a decade, the collection had expanded to 7,000 traditional and modern objects from across all of Africa.[9] Under Walker's tenure, the museum expanded its contemporary art collection, opening a permanent gallery in 1997. That year, photographer Constance Stuart Larrabee gave the museum 3,000 photographs from South Africa.[10] In 2005, the museum received the Walt Disney-Tishman Collection of 525 works spanning most major African art styles and 75 cultures.[25] The acquisition was a validation of the museum's status, given the other institutions who vied for the collection.[18] The museum's library also grew upon joining the Smithsonian, from 3,000 to 30,000 volumes in visual arts, anthropology, cooking, history, religion, and travel, especially works published in Africa.[4] It now contains 50,000 volumes.[26]
Exhibitions

The museum hosted 130 special exhibitions in its first 25 years,[4] and since joining the Smithsonian, hosts two to three temporary exhibitions annually.[27] In its pre-Smithsonian years, the museum's exhibitions were often loaned, such as from the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation. In the early '80s, its curators organized "focus" exhibitions centered around a single object from the collection. The museum hosted outside curators and traveling exhibitions. Its shows became more ambitious as its museum relations and budget grew.[5] At the opening of the National Mall building, the museum showed 375 works in five small- and mid-sized exhibits with survey and single-theme scopes. The central exhibit, "African Art in the Cycle of Life", exhibited 88 items in seven sections following seven phases of African tribal life so as to provide social context for their use. For example, sections such as "Continuity" displayed hand-carved maternity figures, "Transition" displayed coming-of-age ceremonial masks, and "Towards a Secure World" displayed priest and healer items. Many of the pieces were masterpieces borrowed from American and European museums and private collections. Another exhibit showed 100 items from the museum's own collection. The remaining three exhibits were smaller: West African textiles, Benin sculptures and copper reliefs, and useful objects like baskets, hairpins, and snuff boxes.[24] The exhibitions were chosen to confront stereotypes of African art as overly "expressive, ritualistic, and ... undocumented", and instead show perspectives overlooked in Western views on African art.[6]
During the Walker years—the late '90s and early 2000s—the museum hosted shows on Egyptian contemporary art and Malagasy textiles. A 1997 gift from photographer Constance Stuart Larrabee led to an in-house and traveling exhibition.[10] Walker organized a 1998 retrospective of Yoruba sculptor Olowe of Ise, a rare example of a single-person African art show. The exhibition's accompanying catalogue raisonne was the first such scholarly publication for a traditional African artist.[28] The museum has also held solo exhibitions for artists including Sokari Douglas Camp (1989)[29][30] and Yinka Shonibare (2010).[31] Exhibitions aimed towards children, such as "Playful Performers", drew crowds under Patton's directorship in the mid-2000s, as did "Treasures" shows from the museum's collection and artist visits.[12] A 2004 show, "Insights", highlighted 30 works about Apartheid South Africa from its collection.[32] In 2013, the museum received its largest gift, $1.8 million from Oman, towards a series that focuses on arts from the country and its links to cultures in the Near East.[33]
The 2015 "Conversations: African and African-American Artworks in Dialogue", featuring works from the private collection of Bill and Camille Cosby, became controversial for opening just as allegations of sexual assault against him became public. The museum's director had a long friendship with the Cosbys—Camille also sat on the museum's advisory board. The exhibition was funded by a $716,000 donation from the Cosbys and had been planned to bring attention to the museum for its 50th anniversary. As the number of allegations increased, the museum recognized public outcry against the exhibition by creating a sign that acknowledged the allegations and refocused attention on the show's artists and artworks, which remained on view.[13] The Washington Post art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott wrote that the museum violated ethics and hurt its reputation by showcasing a private collection that had not been pledged to the museum. Kennicott challenged whether the painters of Cosby's blue chip collection would have been "silenced" by ending the exhibition early.[34]
Outreach

The museum prioritized education in its early, pre-Smithsonian years. Its founder referred to the institution as "an education department with a museum attached".[5] The museum had an intimate atmosphere[5] and emphasized programs that taught black cultural heritage.[4] Many children from local schools attended the museum, which hosted exhibits including an exercise on "how to look at art" in comparing traditional African and modern art.[5] Through the '90s, school groups took guided tours with trained docents. The new location on the National Mall increased the museum's unguided visits.[5]
In the early 1980s, the Smithsonian found that few of its 20 million annual visitors were of a racial minority despite the city's large black population, and created a committee to address the disparity. As the African art museum had not yet moved to the National Mall, it served a black constituency in a racially mixed neighborhood, with racially integrated staff and programming popular among local school groups with its regular films, folk stories, and lectures. The museum also offered workshops on African stripweave and talking drum.[2] Patton, museum director in the mid-2000s, said that the museum was not well known in Washington, as only half of taxi drivers knew its location.[11] Patton's tenure included shows targeted towards children.[12] As a result, the museum briefly served more children than adults.[18] Around this time, the museum held about 10 special events a year.[4] The Washington Post wrote that the museum "struggled ... to attract visitors and donations" in 2016, which was exacerbated by the Cosby controversy.[13]
Reception
At the National Mall building's opening, three New York Times reviewers criticized elements of its design, namely the architect's choice of materials and lack of natural light underground.[19][6][24] Architecture critic Paul Goldberger considered the above-ground elements a "clunky ... pavilion of granite" whose elements were "woefully simplistic", unsubtle, and awkward compared to the Smithsonian castle in the distance. He mildly praised the complex's "clever" layout and its maximized underground utility with minimal above-ground changes. Goldberger admired the building's craftsmanship, interiors, and responsive gallery spaces.[19] The other two Times reviewers, in turn, were unsettled to see works once associated with the outdoors instead displayed with no natural light,[6] and feared the precedent for other museums, adding that the lack of light was unaccommodating to both viewers and the works.[24] The museum's director, however, noted that natural light would cause conservation issues for their wood sculptures.[6] The museum felt restrained as part of the larger complex, one critic wrote, and deficient in style.[6]
Of the opening exhibition, the New York Times critic described the exhibits as often austere and understated in irregularly sized rooms that sometimes overwhelmed its contents. She was fondest of the small exhibits and the works imported from other museums.[24] The other Times reviewer found the museum's collection larger but "less spectacular" than that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though the latter had more works available when it began its collection.[6] The opening exhibits, overall, piqued viewer curiosity in the subject and underscored the importance of religious belief and craftsmanship in the displayed works. The opening's reviewer struggled to generalize the African works, which ranged from face- and figure-focused  to the elegant, geometric abstraction of West African strip weaving.[24] The other reviewer added that the museum's textiles exhibition overemphasized the connection between African art and everyday life, as the textiles had comparatively weaker "imaginative ... impact".[6]
"It's impossible", a reviewer wrote in The Washington Times, "not to be profoundly moved" by the museum's 2004 Apartheid exhibition. She praised the museum's contemporary collection but said that the works fought against their surroundings—the dedicated contemporary gallery was a good space with a poor ambiance.[32]

 Media related to Screenshots of Wikipedia Main Page at Wikimedia Commons
No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.

Which museum has the largest collection of African art?


London is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world. A 2000 survey of school children reported there were over 300 languages spoken at home.[1]
At the 2011 census, London had a population of 8,173,941. Of this number, 44.9% were White British. 37% of the population were born outside the UK, including 24.5% born outside of Europe.[2]
Ethnic breakdown
2011 Census

Distribution of ethnic groups in Greater London according to the 2011 census.
White
Asian
Black
White-British
White-Irish
White-Other
Asian-Indian
Asian-Pakistani
Asian-Bangladeshi
Asian-Chinese
Black-African
Black-Caribbean
Other-Arab

Black population of London
At the 2011 census, the total Black population of London stood at 1,101,688.[4] This is a rise of 39% from the 2001 census, when the population stood at 781,751.
Inner London and Outer London have a near-equal black population. The 2011 census is the first time that the black population in Outer London has overtaken that of Inner London:

The black population of London is noticeably concentrated in South London, with the four boroughs with the highest black populations overall, all south of the river and Greenwich also featuring inside the top 10. Southwark has the highest Black African population, Croydon has the highest Black Caribbean population and Lambeth has the highest total black population in London. The twenty London boroughs with the highest total Black population (Black African, Black Caribbean and Other Black) are listed below:

Asian population of London
At the 2011 census, the total Asian population of London stood at 1,511,546.[4] This is a rise of 60% from the 2001 census, when the population stood at 947,425.
Outer London has a greater Asian population than Inner London:

The Asian population of London is noticeably concentrated in East and West London. Harrow has the highest Indian population, Redbridge has the highest Pakistani population and Tower Hamlets has the highest Bangladeshi and Chinese population. Newham has the highest total Asian population in London. The twenty London boroughs with the highest total Asian population (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Other Asian) are listed below.

Foreign-born population
At the 2011 census, 36.7% of London's population was foreign born (including 24.5% born outside of Europe).[5] With 3,082,000 residents born abroad in 2014.[6] London has the largest population number (not percentage) of foreign-born.[6]

Significant ethnic minority communities
Arabs

Significant migration from Arab countries to the UK began in the 1940s, mostly by Egyptians. Other waves followed, such as Lebanese fleeing the civil war. The centre of London has a thriving Arab community, centred around Edgware Road.[7]
Bangladeshis

A major wave of immigration began in the 1970s, as people from the Sylhet region arrived in London, fleeing poverty and the Bangladesh Liberation War. Many settled around Brick Lane, where they entered the textile trade. This trade has declined causing unemployment, but the community has moved into other businesses, including restaurants and banking. The level of immigration peaked in 1986 and has since entered a decline with the introduction of harsher immigration laws.
The community remains concentrated around Bethnal Green and Whitechapel and has spread into other east London boroughs. London as a city is home to the single largest number of people of Bangladeshi origin outside of Bangladesh, with close to 200,000 individuals being of full Bangladeshi origin in 2007.
Chinese

Chinese people constitute the fourth largest Asian group in London (behind the Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis respectively); numbering 114,800 in 2007, they are spread more or less across the entire city and have become successful in British life, especially when it comes to cuisine. The history of the Chinese in London is long and complex, with the first Chinese people arriving in the city in the 19th century as sailors.
Germans

Fiona Moore, author of "The German School in London, UK: Fostering the Next Generation of National Cosmopolitans?", wrote that the London German community "relies on subtle network connections rather than the displaying of obvious membership traits", since London Germans attended the same churches, joined the same clubs, and sent their children to the same schools.[8] According to Moore this aspect was likely influenced by the outcomes of World War I and World War II, resulting in encouragement for UK-based Germans "to try to blend in to a greater degree than elsewhere."[8]
The German business and expatriate community is centred on the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, which houses the German School London (DSL) and most German expatriates residing in London. Moore wrote that the borough "does not immediately show signs of hosting a German community" due to a lack of obvious German businesses and storefronts,[8] but that most residents know of the location of the DSL and that there are "more subtle signs of German presence."[9]
German expatriates are located throughout London. Some of them do not go to the Borough of Richmond upon Thames even though the centre of the German community is located there.[8]
Ghanaians

Besides Nigerians, Ghanaians are one of the largest Black African groups in London, with the majority living in the boroughs of Southwark, Lambeth, Newham, Hackney, Haringey, Lewisham, Merton, Croydon, Enfield and Brent.[10]
Greeks

According to the "History of London's Greek community" by Jonathan Harris,[11] the Greek population of London numbered several thousand by 1870 AD whereas in 1850 AD it was just a few hundred. The 2001 Census recorded 12,360 Greek-born people living in London, with particular concentrations in the Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Chelsea and Kensington Census tracts.[12]
The Census tracts with the highest number of Cypriot-born people in 2001 were Palmers Green, Upper Edmonton, Cockfosters, Lower Edmonton, Tottenham North and Tottenham South.[13] Many Greek-Cypriots reside in Wood Green, Harringay and Palmers Green, the latter harbouring the largest community of Greek-Cypriots outside Cyprus, resulting in these areas bearing local nicknames whereby the Green is replaced by Greek – as in Greek Lanes and Palmers Greek.[14][15][16]
According to a City of London Corporation sponsored report,[17] there are between 280,600 and 310,000 Greek speakers in Greater London.
The Greek Primary School of London and the Greek Secondary School of London both serve the community.
Indians

British Indians have long been one of London's largest ethnic minority groups and in 2007 over 500,000 Indians were residing in London (this excludes people of half or less Indian origin). Around 7% of London's population is of Indian origin. Indians have been in the British capital for generations and come from all walks of life.
Irish

Irish migration to Great Britain has a lengthy history due to the close proximity of, and complex relationship between, the islands of Ireland and Great Britain and the various political entities that have ruled them. Today, millions of residents of Great Britain are either from the island of Ireland or have Irish ancestry. Around six million Britons have an Irish grandfather or grandmother (approximately 10% of the UK population).[18] 900,000 ethnic Irish people live in the capital (12% of the city's population); despite this, some sources put the population of people of Irish descent in London at 77% (some five and a half million people), although the White British and White Irish populations combined are less than this.[19][20]
Jamaicans

There are records that show black people, predominantly from Jamaica, living in London during the 17th and 18th centuries; but it was not until the arrival of the HMT<i>Empire Windrush, on 22 June 1948, that significant numbers of Caribbeans, in particular Jamaicans, arrived in the capital. This has since become an important landmark in the history of modern multicultural Britain. During the post World War II era, the presence of these immigrants was requested to help reconstruct the British economy. Employers such as British Rail, the NHS and London transport recruited almost exclusively from Jamaica. Some 250,000 Londoners are of Jamaican origin.[21]
Japanese

Junko Sakai, author of Japanese Bankers in the City of London: Language, Culture and Identity in the Japanese Diaspora, stated that there is no particular location for the Japanese community in London, but that the families of Japanese "company men" have a tendency of living in North London and West London. Japanese restaurants and shops are located around these groups of Japanese people.[22]
Koreans

As of 2014 there were about 10,000 ethnic Koreans in New Malden proper,[23] and as of the same year the Korean population in the area around New Malden is around 20,000, including about 600 originating from North Korea, giving it the largest group of North Koreans in Europe.[24] Many of the Koreans living in New Malden work for Korean companies, and they are either permanently settled and formerly expatriate, or they are still expatriates.[25] In 2015 Paul Fischer of The Independent wrote that the North Koreans were insular, and that there were tensions between the South Korean majority and the North Koreans in New Malden.[23]
The New Malden area has Korean-language churches and nursery schools as well as restaurants and shops with Korean clientele.[26] The area has Korean supermarkets, about 20 Korean restaurants and cafes,[23] including those serving bulgogi.[23] It also has a noraebang (Karaoke bar).[24] The Korean language is visible on several shop signs. The original Embassy of South Korea to the United Kingdom is in Malden.[23]
Some factors cited in The Telegraph as reasons why the Korean community formed in New Malden included a 1950s joint venture partnership between a chaebol and Racal Avionics (formerly Dacca), Lord Chancellor's Walk in Coombe Lane West previously serving as the residence of the Ambassador of South Korea to the United Kingdom, and Samsung Electronics having its UK offices in New Malden until they moved to their current location in Chertsey, Surrey in 2005. Many Koreans settled the New Malden in the 1970s due to the ambassador's location.[24]
There is a newspaper published in New Malden, Free NK, which is opposed to the government of North Korea.[24]
Lithuanians

London houses the largest ethnic Lithuanian population outside Lithuania, numbering 40,000 – 80,000. The Lithuanian community in London, however, goes back to at least the early 20th century. Most of the community came in a wave of Eastern European immigration in the 2000s, after Lithuania joined the European Union.[27]
Most of London's Lithuanians live in the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, with smaller numbers elsewhere. The main Lithuanian-speaking Roman Catholic church, St Casimir's, however, lies in Bethnal Green.[27]
Nigerians

London (in particular the southern boroughs) is home to the largest Nigerian community in the UK, and possibly the largest overseas Nigerian community in the world. The first Nigerians in London were those caught up in the slave trade over 200 years ago.
In the mid-20th century a wave of Nigerian immigrants came to London after hearing of the need for more skilled workers.  Civil and political unrest in the country contributed to numerous refugees arriving in England.[28] The vast majority of famous and notable British people of Nigerian origin were either born in or now live in London.
Peckham (also known as Little Lagos and Yorubatown) is home to one of the largest overseas Nigerian communities in the world; many of the local establishments are Yoruba-owned. Nigerian churches and mosques can be found in the area. As immigrants become assimilated, English is becoming the predominant language of the local Nigerian British population.  The Yoruba language is declining in use in the Peckham area despite the increasing Nigerian population.[29] In 2001, about 7% of Peckham's population was born in Nigeria.[30] A much larger proportion of the ward's 60% Black population is of Nigerian descent, as 40% are of other African descent.[31]
Pakistanis

Pakistanis in London form the largest concentrated community of British Pakistanis; immigration from regions which now form Pakistan predate Pakistan's independence.[32] The main concentrations of Pakistani settlement in London are found in Outer London with the boroughs of Redbridge, Newham and Waltham Forest accounting for nearly a third of Londoners of Pakistani descent.
Polish

London has had a notable Polish community since the Second World War. Many of the migrants from Poland in the 1940s were soldiers and their families. The Polish Government in Exile was based in London until it was dissolved in 1991 following the restoration of democracy in Poland. In the 2000s a wave of Polish immigrants came to Britain, including London, after Poland joined the European Union. As of 2016, Poles now account for about 4.5 per cent of London's foreign-born population.[33]
The boroughs of Ealing, Enfield, Kensington and Chelsea, Haringey, Lambeth, Lewisham and Wandsworth have significant numbers of Poles living there. The Church of the Evangelist in Putney is one of several Polish-speaking Roman Catholic churches in London, and the Polish Social and Cultural Association in Hammersmith is the community's main centre. Polish-style shops, with their distinctive red and white signs accompanied by words in the Polish language, can be found in many parts of London.[34]
Thai

Turkish

Gallery

London's Irish community celebrating Saint Patrick's Day.
Chinatown, London during Chinese new year.
London Turks protesting.
London Bangladeshis at Baishakhi Mela.
Kittitian and Nevisian street dancers at the Notting Hill Carnival.
London Iraqis celebrating 2007 AFC Asian Cup victory for Iraq.
Large numbers of Colombians live in London.
A Polish shop in Ealing.

See also

Demography of London

Moore, Fiona. "The German School in London, UK: Fostering the Next Generation of National Cosmopolitans?" (Chapter 4). In: Coles, Anne and Anne-Meike Fechter. Gender and Family Among Transnational Professionals (Routledge International Studies of Women and Place). Routledge, 6 August 2012. ISBN1134156200, 9781134156207.
Reference notes

Further reading
Cherti, Miriam.  (IMISCOE dissertations Sussex theses ; S 6271). Amsterdam University Press, 2008. ISBN9053560327, 9789053560327.

 by the Commission for Racial Equality

Which U.S. college has the most ethnically diverse student population?


The production of silk originates in China in the Neolithic (Yangshao culture, 4th millennium BC). Silk remained confined to China until the Silk Road opened at some point during the later half of the 1st millennium BC. China maintained its virtual monopoly over silk production for another thousand years. Not confined to clothing, silk was also used for a number of other applications, including writing, and the color of silk worn was an important guide of social class during the Tang dynasty.
Silk cultivation spread to Japan around 300 AD, and, by 522 AD, the Byzantines managed to obtain silkworm eggs and were able to begin silkworm cultivation. The Arabs also began to manufacture silk at the same time. As a result of the spread of sericulture, Chinese silk exports became less important, although they still maintained dominance over the luxury silk market. The Crusades brought silk production to Western Europe, in particular to many Italian states, which saw an economic boom exporting silk to the rest of Europe. Changes in manufacturing techniques also began to take place during the Middle Ages, with devices such as the spinning wheel first appearing. During the 16th century, France joined Italy in developing a successful silk trade, though the efforts of most other nations to develop a silk industry of their own were unsuccessful.
The Industrial Revolution changed much of Europe's silk industry. Due to innovations on spinning cotton, cotton became much cheaper to manufacture and therefore caused more expensive silk production to become less mainstream. New weaving technologies, however, increased the efficiency of production. Among these was the Jacquard loom, developed for silk embroidery. An epidemic of several silkworm diseases caused production to fall, especially in France, where the industry never recovered. In the 20th century Japan and China regained their earlier role in silk production, and China is now once again the world's largest producer of silk. The rise of new fabrics such as nylon reduced the prevalence of silk throughout the world, and silk is now once again a rare luxury good, much less important than in its heyday.
Early history

First appearance of silk
The earliest evidence of silk was found at the sites of Yangshao culture in Xia County, Shanxi, where a silk cocoon was found cut in half by a sharp knife, dating back to between 4000 and 3000 BC. The species was identified as Bombyx mori, the domesticated silkworm. Fragments of primitive loom can also be seen from the sites of Hemmed culture in Yuyao, Zhejiang, dated to about 4000 BC. The earliest example of silk fabric is from 3630 BC, and was used as wrapping for the body of a child. The fabric comes from a Yangshao site in Qingtaicun at Rongyang, Henan.[1] Scraps of silk were found in a Liangzhu culture site at Qianshanyang in Huzhou, Zhejiang, dating back to 2700 BC.[2][3] Other fragments have been recovered from royal tombs in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC).[4]
During the later epoch, the Chinese lost their secret to the Koreans, the Japanese, and, later, the Indians, as these cultures discovered how to make silk. Allusions to the fabric in the Old Testament show that it was known in western Asia in biblical times.[5] Scholars believe that starting in the 2nd century BC the Chinese established a commercial network aimed at exporting silk to the West.[5] Silk was used, for example, by the Persian court and its king, Darius III, when Alexander the Great conquered the empire.[5] Even though silk spread rapidly across Eurasia, with the possible exception of Japan its production remained exclusively Chinese for three millennia.

Myths and legends

The writings of Confucius and Chinese tradition recount that, in about 3000 BC, a silk worm's cocoon fell into the tea cup of the empress Leizu.[6] Wishing to extract it from her drink, the 14-year-old girl began to unroll the thread of the cocoon.
She then had the idea to weave some of it, so she kept some for herself. Having observed the life of the silk worm on the recommendation of her husband, the Yellow Emperor, she began to instruct her entourage in the art of raising silk worms, sericulture. From this point, the girl became the goddess of silk in Chinese mythology. Silk eventually left China via the heir of a princess who was promised to a prince of Khotan. This probably occurred in the early 1st century AD.[7] The princess, refusing to go without the fabric that she loved, would finally break the imperial ban on silk-worm exportation.
Though silk was exported to foreign countries in great amounts, sericulture remained a secret that the Chinese carefully guarded. Consequently, other peoples invented wildly varying accounts of the source of the incredible fabric.
In classical antiquity, most Romans, great admirers of the cloth, were convinced that the Chinese took the fabric from tree leaves.[8] This belief was affirmed by Seneca the Elder in his Phaedra and by Virgil in his Georgics. Notably, Pliny the Elder knew better. Speaking of the bombyx or silk moth, he wrote in his Natural History "They weave webs, like spiders, that become a luxurious clothing material for women, called silk."[9]
Silk usage in Ancient and Medieval China

In China, silk-worm farming was originally restricted to women, and many women were employed in the silk-making industry. Even though some saw the development of a luxury product as useless, silk provoked such a craze among high society that the rules in the Li Ji were used to limit its use to the members of the imperial family.[4] For approximately a millennium, the right to wear silk was reserved for the emperor and the highest dignitaries. Silk was, at the time, a sign of great wealth, because of its shimmering appearance. This appearance was due to silk's prism-like shape/structure, which refracted light from every angle. After some time, silk gradually extended to other classes of Chinese society, like the noble class and such. Silk began to be used for decorative means and also in less luxurious ways: musical instruments, fishing, and bow making. Peasants did not have the right to wear silk until the Qing dynasty (1644–1911).[4]
Paper was one of the greatest discoveries of ancient China. Beginning in the 3rd century BC paper was made in all sizes with various materials.[10] Silk was no exception, and silk workers had been making paper since the 2nd century BC. Silk, bamboo, linen, wheat and rice straw were all used, and paper made with silk became the first type of luxury paper. Researchers have found an early example of writing done on silk paper in the tomb of a marchioness who died around 168, in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan. The material was certainly more expensive, but also more practical than bamboo slips. Treatises on many subjects, including meteorology, medicine, astrology, divinity, and even maps written on silk[11] have been discovered.

During the Han Dynasty, silk became progressively more valuable in its own right, and became more than simply a material. It was used to pay government officials and compensate citizens who were particularly worthy. By the same token that one would sometimes estimate the price of products according to a certain weight of gold, the length of the silk cloth became a monetary standard in China (in addition to bronze coins). The wealth that silk brought to China stirred envy in neighboring peoples. Beginning in the 2nd century BC, the Xiongnu regularly pillaged the provinces of the Han Chinese for around 250 years. Silk was a common offering by the emperor to these tribes in exchange for peace.
Silk is described in a chapter on mulberry planting by Si Shengzhi of the Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD). There is a surviving calendar for silk production in an Eastern Han (25 – 220 AD) document. The two other known works on silk from the Han period are lost.[1]
The military payrolls tell us that soldiers were paid in bundles of plain silk textiles, which circulated as currency in Han times. Soldiers may well have traded their silk with the nomads who came to the gates of the Great Wall to sell horses and furs.[12]

For more than a millennium, silk remained the principal diplomatic gift of the emperor of China to his neighbors or to his vassals.[4] The use of silk became so important that silk (糸) soon constituted one of the principal radicals of Chinese script.
Broadly speaking, the use of silk was regulated by a very precise code in China. For example, the Tang Dynasty  and Song Dynasty imposed upon bureaucrats the use of particular colors according to their functions in society. Under the Ming, silk began to be used in a series of accessories: handkerchiefs, wallets, belts, or even an embroidered piece of fabric displaying dozens of animals, real or mythical. These fashion accessories remained associated with a particular position: there was a specific bonnet for warriors, for judges, for nobles, and others for religious use. The women of high Chinese society heeded codified practices and used silk in their garments to which they added countless motifs.[4] A 17th-century work, Jin Ping Mei, gives a description of one such motif:
Golden lotus having a quilted backgammon pattern, double-folded, adorned with savage geese pecking at a landscape of flowers and roses; the dress' right figure had a floral border with buttons in the form of bees or chrysanthemums.[4]

Chinese silk making process
The silkworms and mulberry leaves are placed on trays.
Twig frames for the silkworms are prepared.
The cocoons are weighed.
The cocoons are soaked and the silk is wound on spools.
The silk is woven using a loom.

Silk production in South Asia
The earliest examples of silk production outside China are from silk threads discovered from the Chanhudaro site in the Indus Valley Civilisation which are dated to 2450–2000 BC.[13][14] The analysis of the silk fibres shows presence of reeling and sericulture. This finding predates the one found in Nevasa in peninsular India in 1500 BC. The Siberian Ice Maiden discovered from the Pazyryk burials was found clad in a long crimson and white striped woolen skirt and white felt stockings. Her yellow blouse was originally thought to be made of wild tussah silk but closer examination of the fibers indicate the material is not Chinese but was a wild silk which came from somewhere else, perhaps India.[15]
Chinese silk and its commerce

Numerous archaeological discoveries show that silk had become a luxury material appreciated in foreign countries well before the opening of the Silk Road by the Chinese. For example, silk has been found in the Valley of the Kings in a tomb of a mummy dating from 1070 BC.[16] First the Greeks, then the Romans began to speak about the Seres (people of silk), a term to designate the inhabitants of the far-off kingdom, China. According to certain historians, the first Roman contact with silk was that of the legions of the governor of Syria, Crassus. At the Battle of Carrhae, near to the Euphrates, the legions were said to be so surprised by the brilliance of the banners of Parthia that they fled.[16]
The silk road toward the west was opened by the Chinese in the 2nd century AD. The main road left from Xi'an, going either to the north or south of the Taklamakan desert, one of the most arid in the world, before crossing the Pamir Mountains. The caravans that employed this method to exchange silk with other merchants were generally quite large, including from 100 to 500 people as well as camels and yaks carrying around 140 kg (300 lb) of merchandise. They linked to Antioch and the coasts of the Mediterranean, about one year's travel from Xi'an. In the south, a second route went by Yemen, Burma, and India before rejoining the northern route.[17][18]
Not long after the conquest of Egypt in 30 BC regular commerce began between the Romans and Asia, marked by the Roman appetite for silk cloth coming from the Far East, which was then resold to the Romans by the Parthians. The Roman Senate tried in vain to prohibit the wearing of silk, for economic reasons as well as moral ones. The import of Chinese silk resulted in vast amounts of gold leaving Rome, to such an extent that silk clothing was perceived as a sign of decadence and immorality.
I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes. ... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body.—Seneca the Younger, Declamations Vol. I.[19]

In the late Middle Ages, transcontinental trade over the land routes of the Silk Road declined as sea trade increased.[20] The Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, India, Ancient Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Ancient Rome. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague (the "Black Death"), also traveled along the Silk Routes. Some of the other goods traded included luxuries such as silk, satin, hemp and other fine fabrics, musk, other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware, and even rhubarb, as well as slaves.[21] China traded silk, teas, and porcelain; while India traded spices, ivory, textiles, precious stones, and pepper; and the Roman Empire exported gold, silver, fine glassware, wine, carpets, and jewels. Although the term the Silk Road implies a continuous journey, very few who traveled the route traversed it from end to end; for the most part, goods were transported by a series of agents on varying routes and were traded in the bustling markets of the oasis towns.[21] The main traders during Antiquity were the Indian and Bactrian traders, then from the 5th to the 8th century AD the Sogdian traders, then afterward the Arab and Persian traders.
Spread of production

Although silk was well known in Europe and most of Asia, China was able to keep a near monopoly on silk production. The monopoly was defended by an imperial decree, condemning to death anyone attempting to export silkworms or their eggs. Only around the year 300 AD did a Japanese expedition succeed in taking some silkworm eggs and four young Chinese girls, who were forced to teach their captors the art of sericulture.[22] Techniques of sericulture were subsequently introduced to Japan on a larger scale by frequent diplomatic exchanges between the 8th and 9th centuries.
Starting in the 4th century BC silk began to reach the Hellenistic world by merchants who would exchange it for gold, ivory, horses or precious stones.
Up to the frontiers of the Roman Empire, silk became a monetary standard for estimating the value of different products. Hellenistic Greece appreciated the high quality of the Chinese goods and made efforts to plant mulberry trees and breed silkworms in the Mediterranean basin. Sassanid Persia controlled the trade of silk destined for Europe and Byzantium.
The Greek word for "silken" was σηρικός, from the name of the Seres (Σῆρες), according to Strabo the people from whom silk was first obtained.[23] The Greek word gave rise to Latin sericum and ultimately Old English sioloc, Middle English silk.

According to a story by Procopius,[24] it was not until 552 AD that the Byzantine emperor Justinian obtained the first silkworm eggs. He had sent two Nestorian monks to Central Asia, and they were able to smuggle silkworm eggs to him hidden in rods of bamboo. While under the monks' care, the eggs hatched, though they did not cocoon before arrival. The church manufacture in the Byzantine Empire was thus able to make fabrics for the emperor, with the intention of developing a large silk industry in the Eastern Roman Empire, using techniques learned from the Sassanids. These gynecia had a legal monopoly on the fabric, but the empire continued to import silk from other major urban centres on the Mediterranean.[25] The magnificence of the Byzantine techniques was not a result of the manufacturing process, but instead of the meticulous attention paid to the execution and decorations. The weaving techniques they used were taken from Egypt. The first diagrams of semple looms appeared  in the 5th century.[26]
The Arabs, with their widening conquests, spread sericulture across the shores of the Mediterranean, leading to the development of sericulture in North Africa, Andalusia and Sicily.[27]
The interactions among Byzantine and Muslim silk-weaving centers of all levels of quality, with imitations made in Andalusia and Lucca, among other cities, have made the identification and date of rare surviving examples difficult to pinpoint.[28]
While the Chinese lost their monopoly on silk production, they were able to re-establish themselves as major silk supplier (during the Tang dynasty), and to industrialize their production in a large scale (during the Song dynasty).[29] China continued to export high-quality fabric to Europe and the Near East along the silk road.
After the start of the Crusades, techniques of silk production began to spread across Western Europe.
In 1147 while Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos was focusing all his efforts on the Second Crusade, the Norman king Roger II of Sicily attacked Corinth and Thebes, two important centres of Byzantine silk production. They took the crops and silk production infrastructure, and deported all the workers to Palermo, thereby causing the Norman silk industry to flourish.[30]
The sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 brought decline to the city and its silk industry, and many artisans left the city in the early 13th century.[27] Italy developed a large domestic silk industry after 2000 skilled weavers came from Constantinople. Many also chose to settle in Avignon to furnish the popes of Avignon.
The sudden boom of the silk industry in the Italian state of Lucca, starting in the 11th and 12th centuries was due to much Sicilian, Jewish, and Greek settlement, alongside many other immigrants from neighbouring cities in southern Italy.[31] With the loss of many Italian trading posts in the Orient, the import of Chinese styles drastically declined. Gaining momentum, in order to satisfy the rich and powerful bourgeoisie's demands for luxury fabrics, the cities of Lucca, Genoa, Venice and Florence were soon exporting silk to all of Europe. In 1472 there were 84 workshops and at least 7000 craftsmen in Florence alone.
Reciprocal influences

Silk was made using various breeds of lepidopterans, both wild and domestic. While wild silks were produced in many countries, there is no doubt that the Chinese were the first to begin production on such a large scale, having the most effective species for silk production, the Bombyx mandarina and its domesticated descendent B. mori. Chinese sources claim the existence of a machine to unwind silkworm cocoons in 1090. The cocoons were placed in a large basin of hot water, the silk would leave the cauldron by tiny guiding rings, and would be wound onto a large spool, thanks to a backwards and forward motion.[10] Little information exists about spinning techniques in use in China.  The spinning wheel, in all likelihood moved by hand, was known by the beginning of the Christian era. The first accepted image of a spinning wheel appears in 1210. There is an image of a silk spinning machine powered by a water wheel that dates to 1313.
More information is known about the looms used. The Nung Sang Chi Yao, or Fundamentals of Agriculture and Sericulture, compiled around 1210, is rich with pictures and descriptions, many pertaining to silk.[32] It repeatedly claims the Chinese looms to be far superior to all others. It speaks of two types of loom that leave the worker's arms free: the draw loom, which is of Eurasian origin, and the pedal loom which is attributed to East Asian origins. There are many diagrams originate in the 12th and 13th centuries. When examined closely, many similarities between Eurasian machines can be drawn. Since the Jin dynasty, the existence of silk damasks has been well recorded, and since the 2nd century BC, four-shafted looms and other innovations allowed the creation of silk brocades.
Silk in the medieval world
A more abundant luxury

The high Middle Ages saw continued use of established techniques for silk manufacture without any changes to speak of, neither in materials nor in tools used. Between the 10th and 12th centuries, small changes began to appear, though the changes of the 13th century were much larger and more radical. In a short time, new fabrics began to appear; hemp and cotton each also had their own particular techniques of manufacture. Known since Roman times, silk remained a rare and expensive material.[33] Byzantine magnaneries in Greece and Syria  (6th to 8th centuries), and those of the Arabs in Sicily and Spain (8th to 10th centuries) were able to supply the luxury material in a much greater abundance.[33]
Improved technology
The 13th century saw an already changing technology undergo many dramatic changes. It is possible that, as with in England at the end of the 18th century, advances in the textile industry were a driving force behind advances in technology as a whole. Silk indeed occupies a privileged place in history on account of this.[34]
At the start of the 13th century, a primitive form of milling the silk threads was already in use. In 1221 Jean de Garlande's dictionary, and in 1226, Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers (Tradesman's Handbook) enumerated many types of devices which can only have been doubling machines. The instruments used were further perfected in Bologna between 1270 and 1280. From the start of the 14th century, many documents allude to the use of devices that were quite complex.[35]
The reel, originally developed for the silk industry, now has multiple uses. The earliest surviving depiction of a European spinning wheel is a panel of stained glass in the Cathedral of Chartres.[36]  Bobbins and warping machines appear together in the stained glass at Chartres and in a fresco in the Cologne Kunkelhaus (ca 1300). It is possible that the toothed warping machine was created by the silk industry; it allowed the warp to be more uniform and allowed the warp to be of a longer length.[35]
Starting at the end of the 14th century, no doubt on account of the devastation caused mid-century by the Black Death, there was a general shift towards less expensive techniques. Many things which would have earlier been completely forbidden by the guilds were now commonplace (using low quality wool, carding, etc.). In the silk industry, the use of water-powered mills grew, and by the 15th century, the loom designed by Jean le Calabrais saw nearly universal use.[37]
The silk industry in France

Italian silk cloth was very expensive, as much a result of the cost of the raw material as of the production costs. The craftsmen in Italy proved unable to keep up with the exigencies of French fashion, which continuously demanded lighter and less expensive materials.[38] These materials were used for clothing, and garment production began to be done locally. Nevertheless, Italian silk long remained among the most prized, mostly for furnishings and the brilliant colours of the dyes.
Following the example of the wealthy Italian city-states of the era, such as Venice, Florence, and Lucca, which had become the center of the luxury-textile industry, Lyon obtained a similar function in the French market. In 1466, King Louis XI decided to develop a national silk industry in Lyon. In the face of protests by the Lyonnais, he conceded and moved the silk fabrication to Tours, but the industry in Tours stayed relatively marginal. His main objective was to reduce France's trade deficit with the Italian states, which caused France to lose 400,000 to 500,000 golden écus a year.[39] It was under Francis I in around 1535 that a royal charter was granted to two merchants, Étienne Turquet and Barthélemy Naris, to develop a silk trade in Lyon. In 1540, the king granted a monopoly on silk production to the city of Lyon. Starting in the 16th century, Lyon became the capital of the European silk trade, notably producing many reputable fashions.[40] Gaining confidence, the silks produced in the city began to abandon the original oriental styles in favor of their own distinctive style, which emphasized landscapes. Thousand of workers, the canuts, devoted themselves to the flourishing industry. In the middle of the 17th century, over 14,000 looms were used in Lyon, and the silk industry fed a third of the city's population.[40]
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Provence experienced a boom in sericulture that would last until the first world war, with much of the silk shipped north to Lyon. Viens and La Bastide-des-Jourdans are two of the communes of Luberon that profited the most from mulberry plantations that have since disappeared.[41] However, silk centers still operate today.[42]Working at home under the domestic system, silk spinning and silk treatment employed many people and increased the income of the working class.
Spread to other countries

England under Henry IV was also looking to develop a silk industry, but no opportunity arose until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes the 1680s, when hundreds of thousands of French Huguenots, many of whom were skilled weavers and experts in sericulture, began immigrating to England to escape religious persecution. Some areas, including Spitalfields saw many high-quality silk workshops spring up, their products distinct from continental silk largely by the colors used.[43] Nonetheless, the British climate prevented England's domestic silk trade from becoming globally dominant.
Many envisioned starting a silk industry in the British colonies in America, starting in 1619, under the reign of King James I of England. The silk industry in the colonies never became very large. Likewise, silk was introduced to numerous other countries, including Mexico, where it was brought by Cortez in 1522. Only rarely did these new silk industries grow to any significant size.[44]
Silk since the Industrial Revolution

The start of the Industrial Revolution
The start of the Industrial Revolution was marked by a massive boom in the textile industry, with remarkable technological innovations made, led by the cotton industry of Great Britain. In its early years, there were often disparities in technological innovation between different stages of fabric manufacture, which encouraged complementary innovations. For example, spinning progressed much more rapidly than weaving.
The silk industry, however, did not gain any benefit from innovations in spinning, as silk is naturally already a thread. Making silk, silver, and gold brocades is a very delicate and precise process, with each colour needing its own dedicated shuttle. In the 17th and 18th centuries progress began to be made in the simplification and standardization of silk manufacture, with many advances following one after another. Bouchon and Falcon's punched card loom appeared in 1775, later improved on by Jacques de Vaucanson. Later, Joseph-Marie Jacquard improved on the designs of Falcon and Vaucanson, introducing the revolutionary Jacquard loom, which allowed a string of punched cards to be processed mechanically in the correct sequence.[45] The punched cards of the Jacquard loom were a direct precursor to the modern computer, in that they gave a (limited) form of programmability. Punched cards themselves were carried over to computers, and were ubiquitous until their obsolescence in the 1970s. From 1801 embroidery became highly mechanized due to the effectiveness of the Jacquard loom. The mechanism behind the Jacquard loom even allowed complex designs to be mass-produced.
The Jacquard loom was immediately denounced by workers, who accused it of causing unemployment, but soon it had become vital to the industry. The loom was declared public property in 1806, and Jacquard was rewarded with a pension and a royalty on each machine. In 1834 there were a total of 2885 Jacquard looms in Lyon alone.[40] The Canut revolt in 1831 foreshadowed many of the larger worker uprisings of the Industrial Revolution. The canuts occupied the city of Lyon, and would not relinquish it until a bloody repression by the army, led by Marshal Soult. A second revolt, similar to the first, took place in 1834.
Decline in the European silk industry
The first silkworm diseases began to appear in 1845, creating an epidemic. Among them are pébrine, caused by the microsporidia Nosema bombycis, grasserie, caused by a virus, flacherie, caused by eating infected mulberry leaves or white muscardine disease, caused by the fungus Beauveria bassiana. The epidemic grew to a massive scale, and after having attacked the silkworms, other viruses began to infect the mulberry trees. The chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas, French minister of agriculture, was charged with stopping the epidemic. In face of sericulturers' call for help, he asked Louis Pasteur to study the disease, starting in 1865.[46] For many years, Pasteur thought that pébrine was not a contagious disease. In 1870 he changed his view, and measures were enacted that caused the disease to decline.
Nevertheless, the increase in the price of silkworm cocoons and the reduction in importance of silk in the garments of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century caused the decline of the silk industry in Europe. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the silk shortage in France reduced the price of importing Asian silk, particularly from China and Japan.[47]
Starting from the Long Depression (1873–1896), Lyonnais silk production had become totally industrialized, and hand looms were rapidly disappearing. The 19th century saw the textile industry's progress caused by advances in chemistry. The synthesis of aniline was used to make mauveine (aniline purple) dye and the synthesis of quinine was used to make indigo dye. In 1884 Count Hilaire de Chardonnet invented artificial silk and in 1891 opened a factory dedicated to the production of artificial silk (viscose), which cost much less and in part replaced natural silk.

A Jacquard loom.
An illustration of spinning, winding, doubling and throwing machines used in silk textile production in England, 1858.
Silk, cotton and gilt-metal-strip-wrapped cotton panel, machine-woven in Scotland c. 1887. Tulip motif is inspired by Turkish textiles.

Silk in modern times

Following the crisis in Europe, the modernization of sericulture in Japan made it the world's foremost silk producer. By the early 20th century, rapidly industrializing Japan was producing as much as 60 percent of the world's raw silk, most exports shipping through the port of Yokohama.[48] Italy managed to rebound from the crisis, but France was unable. Urbanization in Europe saw many French and Italian agricultural workers leave silk growing for more lucrative factory work. Raw silk was imported from Japan to fill the void.[6] Asian countries, formerly exporters of raw materials (cocoons and raw silk), progressively began to export more and more finished garments.
During the Second World War, silk supplies from Japan were cut off, so western countries were forced to find substitutes. Synthetic fibres such as nylon were used in products such as parachutes and stockings, replacing silk. Even after the war, silk was not able to regain many of the markets lost, though it remained an expensive luxury product.[6] Postwar Japan, through improvements in technology and a protectionist market policy, became the world's foremost exporter of raw silk, a position it held until the 1970s.[6] The continued rise in importance of synthetic fibres and loosening of the protectionist economy contributed to the decline of Japan's silk industry, and by 1975 it was no longer a net exporter of silk.[49]
With its recent economic reforms, the People's Republic of China has become the world's largest silk producer. In 1996 it produced 58,000 tonnes out of a world production of 81,000, followed by India at 13,000 tonnes. Japanese production is now marginal, at only 2500 tonnes. Between 1995 and 1997 Chinese silk production went down 40% in an effort to raise prices, reminiscent of earlier shortages.[50]
In December 2006 the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 2009 to be the International Year of Natural Fibres, so as to raise the profile of silk and other natural fibres.

Notes

Main sources:
Bertrand Gille. Histoire des techniques, Gallimard, coll. La Pléiade, 1978 (ISBN978-2-07-010881-7)(in French)
The Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert (in French)
Catherine Jolivet-Lévy et Jean-Pierre Sodini,  "Byzance",  in Encyclopædia Universalis, 2006. (in French)
"La Soie, 4000 ans de luxe et de volupté", Historia, n°648, décembre 2000. (in French)
Ron Cherry, "Sericulture", Entomological Society of America
Cook, Robert. Handbook of Textile Fibres Vol. 1: Natural Fibres. Cambridge: Woodhead, 1999.
"Silk", Encyclopædia Britannica
"Soie", Encyclopédie Encarta (in French)
Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. John E. Hill. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN978-1-4392-2134-1.
Anne Kraatz, Marie Risselin-Steenebrugen, Michèle Pirazzoli-t'Serstevens et Madeleine Paul-David, "Tissus d'art",  in Encyclopædia Universalis, 2006. (in French)
Liu, Xinru (2010). The Silk Road in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-516174-8; ISBN978-0-19-533810-2 (pbk).
Toshiharu Furusawa, "The history of Sericulture in Japan – The old and innovative technique for Industry-", Center for Bioresource Field Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology ()
"Métiers agricoles - Magnaniers", Institut supérieur de l'agroalimentaire
Ronan, Colin. The Shorter Science and Civilization in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1994. (in French)
Thirsk, Joan (1997) Alternative Agriculture: A History from the Black Death to the Present Day. Oxford: Oxford University, 1997.
Further reading

China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, China （中国丝绸博物馆）

How many silk worms does it take to make a bolt of silk?