{"id":658,"date":"2020-06-30T15:33:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T15:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/sealitsearchable\/?p=658"},"modified":"2022-07-02T23:46:36","modified_gmt":"2022-07-02T23:46:36","slug":"perry-commodore-matthew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/p\/perry-commodore-matthew\/","title":{"rendered":"Perry, Commodore Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/files\/2012\/02\/perryphoto.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2367\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/files\/2012\/02\/perryphoto.jpg\" alt=\"Matthew Perry\" width=\"150\" height=\"178\"><\/a><em>by Nathaniel T. Mott&nbsp;<\/em>(2000)<\/p>\n<p>PERRY, COMMODORE MATTHEW [CALBRAITH] (1794-1858). Commodore Matthew Perry served a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Navy, which began in January 1809, when he was commissioned as a midshipman. Perry is best known for commanding an 1853 expedition of four vessels, including the steam frigates <em>Mississippi<\/em> (built 1841) and <em>Susquehanna<\/em> (built 1850), on a mission to break Japanese isolationism and secure trading privileges for the United States. A return to Japan the following year, with a larger military force, formally secured these privileges on 31 March 1854 by the Treaty of Kanagawa. In Chapter 24 of <em>Moby-Dick<\/em> (1851), Herman Melville alludes briefly to the isolationism of Japan, believing that when Japan becomes open to trade, a whaleship should receive the credit.<\/p>\n<p>Perry and his Japanese expedition inspired widespread patriotism and a greater interest in Asia. The John Luther Long story <em>Madame Butterfly<\/em> (1898), the David Belasco play <em>Madame Butterfly<\/em> (first perf. 1900), and the Giacomo Puccini opera <em>Madama Butterfly<\/em> (first perf. 1904) explore the potentially tragic implications of cultural conflict in eighteenth-century Japan. Perry&#8217;s 1853 mission provides the setting for the Steven Sondheim\/David Prince production of <em>Pacific Overtures<\/em> (first perf. 1976), a moderately successful Broadway musical chronicling the social changes resulting from the American incursion. Perry documented his experiences in <em>Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan. Performed in the Years 1852, 1853 and 1854 [Under the Command of Commodore M. C. Perry, United States Navy) by Order of the Government of the United States]<\/em> (1856).<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px\"><em>Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron&#8230;<\/em>&nbsp;(1856)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 160px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/narrativeofexped0156perr\">Archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p>keywords: white, male<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Nathaniel T. Mott&nbsp;(2000) PERRY, COMMODORE MATTHEW [CALBRAITH] (1794-1858). Commodore Matthew Perry served a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Navy, which began in January 1809, when he was commissioned as a midshipman. Perry is best known for commanding <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/p\/perry-commodore-matthew\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&amp;<\/span> text links<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25928],"tags":[53755,53777,53764],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-p","tag-19th-century","tag-navy-coast-guard","tag-nonfiction"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6541,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions\/6541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/searchablesealit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}