Dane Morrison is a Professor of Early American History at Salem State University and a Visiting Lecturer in History at Tufts University. He was part of the creative team that developed the museum’s current exhibition “Opium: The Business of Addiction.” 

He is the author of several books, including two related to the China Trade: “True Yankees: The South Seas and the Discovery of American Identity” and “Eastward of Good Hope: Early America in a Dangerous World.” In his discussion of the latter, Morrison will explore how the dangers of international trade with China and others in the 1800s shaped America’s emerging identity and led to the justification of aggressive expansionism and the foundations of imperialism.