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Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Administrative Information
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Bo lan Zhonghua tu zhi albums
    Date (inclusive): 1873-1897
    Number: 2004.R.11
    Creator/Collector: Brady, Herbert Francis, 1854-1924
    Physical Description: 2.5 Linear Feet (2 albums)
    Repository:
    The Getty Research Institute
    Special Collections
    1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
    Los Angeles 90049-1688
    reference@getty.edu
    URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
    (310) 440-7390
    Abstract: The two albums titled Bo lan Zhonghua tu zhi document the lifestyle of the British foreign service community in Beijing, Tianjin (Tientsin), Hankou (Hankow), Jiujiang, and Yantai (Chefoo), and also include views of well-known monuments and sites in Beijing, Hankou, and Ningbo (Ningpo) during the late nineteenth-century.
    Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record   for this collection. Click here for the access policy .
    Language: Collection material is in Description is in English with some Chinese

    Biographical / Historical

    The British diplomat, Herbert Francis Brady (1854-1924), had a long career in the British foreign service. Stationed in China, he started out as a student interpreter in 1876, and went on to hold senior posts in Jiujiang (Kiukiang), Huangpu, Yichang (Ichang), and Shanghai, culminating with his appointment as Consul General in Fuzhou (Foochow), the principal Chinese port, in 1906.

    Administrative Information

    Publication Rights

    Open for use by qualified researchers.

    Publication Rights

    Preferred Citation

    Bo lan Zhonghua tu zhi albums, 1873-1897, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2004.R.11.
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2004r11

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Acquired in 2002.

    Processing Information

    Processed and cataloged by Beth Ann Guynn in 2004. Beth Ann Guynn wrote the finding aid and Beth Ann Guynn and Linda Kleiger encoded the finding aid in 2016.

    Digitized Material

    The collection was digitized in 2017 and the images are available online:

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection comprises two photograph albums of China titled Bo lan tu zhi> . Inscriptions within the albums identify them as Volume 19A and Volume 19B respectively. The albums were likely assembled by Herbert Francis Brady, who appears in several of the photographs. The albums document the lifestyle of the British Foreign Service community in Beijing, Tianjin (Tientsin), Hankou (Hankow), Jiujiang, and Yantai (Chefoo) in the late nineteenth-century, and also include views of well-known monuments and sites in Beijing, Hankou, and Ningbo (Ningpo).
    Althought the bulk of the images are by an unknown maker(s), likely an amateur photographer from within the British Foreign Service community, photographs by Thomas Child; L. F. Fisler; Kung Tai; and William Saunders are also included in the album. Also included are two photographs from Far East Magazine.
    The British Legation in Beijing and its denizens are featured in Series I. Album 19A. Included are exterior and interior views of legation buildings, two group photographs of its fire brigades, and another of the cast of a legation theatrical performance. Sites and monuments in and around Beijing featured in the album include Summer palace, the Temple of Heaven, the observatory, and the Ming tombs. There are also views of the city's gates, walls, and streets. There are several images of the Great Wall, one of which includes a figure who may be Thomas Child.
    Images from Hankou and Jiujiang in Series II. Album 19B include views of the British consulates and social clubs and group portraits of members of the local British communities. There are images of outings to places such as the monastery at Yichang, the Lu-shan hills near Jiujiang, and the Hankou plain, as well as race meets and fancy dress balls. The album also contains views of the Hankou harbor during tea season, the bund, guild houses, and city gates, and the Ningbo pagoda and Tian Tong temple. There are also city views of Yantai and Shanghai.
    Both albums contain a group portrait of members of the Hankou Chinese Inland Mission garbed, according to the sect's custom, in traditional Chinese dress. Scattered throughout the albums are photographs of Chinese people. Included are portraits of the general-statesmen Li Hongzhang (Li Hungchang) and Zuo Zongtang (Tso Tsung-t'ang). A photograph by Thomas Child is a rare depiction of a Buddhist priest doing penance. The Chinese judicial system is represented by a court scene and a group of prisoners wearing the cangue. Also included are studio portraits of Chinese beauties, actors, officials, and a group portrait of bankers and merchants.
    The albums have blue silk brocade covers with hand-lettered titles pasted on upper right-hand corners. A container made of two rosewood boards attached with string has the title and maker's name engraved in Chinese characters: Bo lan tu zhi/ Xiabo Lei.
    Volume 19A has 33 leaves numbered in ink and 61 photographs; most pages have pencil captions in English. Volume 19B has 34 leaves numbered in ink and 58 photographs; most pages have ink captions in Chinese and English. Photographs are adhered to both the rectos and versos of the leaves.

    Arrangement

    The collection is arranged in two series: and . Series I. Volume 19A,1873-1897; Series II. Volume 19B,1878-1897

    Indexing Terms

    Subjects - Names

    Li, Hongzhang, 1823-1901 -- Portraits
    Zuo, Zongtang, 1812-1885 -- Portraits
    Child, Thomas, 1841-1898
    Fisler, L. F.
    Lei, Xiabo
    Tai, Kung

    Subjects - Corporate Bodies

    Overseas Missionary Fellowship
    Tian Tan (Beijing, China)

    Subjects - Topics

    Actors -- China
    Astronomical 0bservatories -- China
    Consuls -- China
    Diplomatic and consular service, British -- Buildings
    Ming Tombs (China)
    Portraits, Chinese
    Buddhist priests -- China
    Buddhist temples -- China
    Temples, Confucian -- China
    Tianjin (China)--Description and travel

    Subjects - Places

    Great Wall of China (China) -- Description and travel
    Beijing (China) -- Description and travel
    Great Britain -- Diplomatic and consular service
    Hankou (Wuhan, China) -- Description and travel
    Jiujiang (Jiangxi Sheng, China) -- Description and travel
    Lu Mountains (China) -- Description and travel
    Shanghai (China) -- Description and travel
    Suzhou Shi (Jiangsu Sheng, China) -- Description and travel
    Yantai (Shandong Sheng, China) -- Description and travel
    Yihe Yuan (Beijing, China) -- Description and travel

    Genres and Forms of Material

    Albumen prints -- China -- 19th century
    Collodion prints -- China -- 19th century
    Photograph albums -- China -- 19th century
    Studio portraits -- China -- 19th century
    Photographs, Original

    Contributors

    Brady, Herbert Francis, 1854-1924