After the Civil War, New York elites agreed that commerce was not enough; the city would flourish only if it had the cultural capital that marked great European cities. New York expanded its horizons beyond European culture, recognizing, especially after 1898, that the US was a Pacific as well as an Atlantic nation. New Yorkers turned toward China and Japan, incorporating their history and culture into the domain of high culture in New York City.

At the turn of the century, several elite New York institutions made East Asia organizational priorities. The American Museum of Natural History began this turn, as China was chosen as the site of one of its first major international expeditions. Columbia University founded the nation's first East Asian Department, a step toward a planned "Oriental School." The Rockefeller Foundation was chartered in part to facilitate the creation of the China Medical Board. The Japan Society was created to improve precarious Japanese-American relations. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art established a department of East Asian art, the final step of East Asia' s introduction into New York's elite culture.

This turn was led by an eclectic group of New Yorkers, including Franz Boas, a curator at the American Museum and a professor at Columbia; Frederick Gates, the philanthropic advisor of the Rockefeller family and the creator of the China Medical Board; and Howard Mansfield, an art collector who was a leader of both the Japan Society and the Metropolitan Museum. This turn also included Asian New Yorkers such as Shoichi Ichikawa, a de facto curator at the American Museum, and Etsu Sugimoto, a novelist and an instructor at Columbia.

The significance of this study lies in three areas. First, it provides insight into the world of New York elites, their institutions, and their struggles for power. Second, it offers a perspective on Asian American history by examining the production of knowledge regarding East Asian cultures during the years of legal exclusion, as well as providing case studies of Asian New Yorkers. Finally, it illuminates the complex local interactions and motives at work in intercultural relations.