The Museum of the American China Trade was founded by Dr. H. A. Crosby Forbes (1925-2012) in 1964, at Forbes' family home, the Forbes House Museum, in Milton, Massachusetts, (originally referred to as the Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House). It was the Museum's mission to utilize its collection as a foundation for the scholarly study of the artifacts of the China Trade. It was intended to be an institution devoted to the study of the early East-West trade, and to the fuller understanding, through research and exhibitions, of the enduring artistic legacy of that trade.

The Museum published its first book in October 1975, Chinese Export Silver, 1785-1885 authored by its founder. It also sent out regular newsletters beginning in the fall of 1965; the first one was called The Capt. R. B. Forbes House, Register. The second newsletter was titled, Museum of the American China Trade Newsletter; it is unclear when this newsletter began and the first ended, but it was being sent out in 1971. In 1972, the newsletter once again changed its name to China Trade Register in 1974. The Museum, later called the Museum of China Trade, received accreditation from the American Association of Museums in 1982. In 1984, the Museum merged with the Peabody Museum of Salem, and became the Peabody Museum's Department of Asian Export Art.

The friends' organization of the Captain Robert Bennet Forbes House was called the Keechong Society. It was the purpose of this society to preserve the history of an important era in America's past when relations between the Chinese and American people were mutually profitable and were based on courtesy and respect. The Society, whose name derives from the Chinese word for the merchant house Russell & Co., supported the Forbes House and the Museum.