Terry Bennett Collection of Early Chinese Photography
The Collection – An Overview
The collection includes more than 8,600 original photographs of China and China-related subjects, the vast majority of which cover the period 1844-1911. The collection is an important archive which contains the work of most, if not all of the important nineteenth-century photographers, Chinese and Western. The major events which shaped Chinese history are included and a very large number of the photographs have not been previously published. The collection includes 66 albums of photographs plus approximately 4,000 individual photographs, including many multi-plate panoramas.
Photographers
John Thomson; Afong Lai; William Saunders; Charles Weed; Tung Hing; Jules Itier; Yamamoto Sanshichiro; John Dudgeon; Milton Miller; Kung Tai; Mee Cheung; Milton Miller; S. Dutton; L. Fisler; St. J. H. Edwards; Emil Riisfeldt; R.C. Hurley; Paul Champion; Pierre Rossier; Charles A. Killie; Wilhelm Burger; Paul-Emile Berranger; Yu Xunling; D.K. Griffith; A.T. Piry; Walter Pontin; James Ricalton; Herbert Ponting; John Wilson; Louis Legrand; Charles Dupin; George Rose; D.R. Clark; C.E. Lemunyon; de Saint Priest; Jacques-Philippe Potteau; W.Tai Fong; Shang Wo; Franz Scholz; Ueno Hikoma; H. Salzwedel & Co; Gustave R. Lambert; Suzuki Tadashi; Wing-Chong; Ying Cheong; Tsoi Cheong; Seng Yuen; Apong & Co; Chow Kwa; Shing Cheung; Cheong-Heng; Ly-Chim; Hang Chung; Yee Cheong; W.G.Todd; Sang-Cheong; Dinmore Bros; Ye-Chung; Tin-Sing; F.Schoenke; Pun-Lun; On-Qua; Hing-Qua John & Co; Man-Foc; Yung Fong; Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Ratenicz; W.H.Harlow, Charles-Édouard Hocquard,H.C. Cammidge, John Papillon and many others….
Albums
Felix Beato; John Thomson [Illustrations of China and its People – 4 Volumes]; Afong Lai; Tung Hing; Mee Chung; R.C.Hurley; William Saunders; Thomas Child; William Floyd; Charles Hocquard – 1884-85 Franco/Sino War; John Dudgeon; Queen’s College Hong Kong – 4 albums of college life etc; Paul Champion; St. J.H. Edwards; Hankow and the Shanghai Steam Navigation Co.; Shanghai Race Club Amateur Circus, 1870s; Jinghan Railway Construction [Beijing-Hankou]; Early 1850s albums of Shanghai; Charles Killie [Boxer Photos taken During Actual Seige] and many others….
Events
1857 Anglo/French bombardment of Canton (Guangzhou); 1860 Opium War; 1869 Hong Kong Visit of Duke of Edinburgh; 1873 Hong Kong Typhoon; 1876 First Railway in China [Shanghai-Woosung]; 1876 Chinese representation at Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia; 1878 International Exposition, Paris – Chinese Works of Art; 1883-85 Franco-Chinese War; 1894 Hong Kong Plague; 1898-1905 Construction of Jinghan Railway [Beijing-Hankou]; 1900 Boxer Uprising; 1908 Funeral of Emperor; 1908 Funeral of Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi; 1910-11 Changchun and Manchurian Plague; 1911 Chinese Revolution; and many others…
Places
Canton (Guangzhou); Tientsin (Tianjin); Macao; Hankow; Foochow (Fuzhou); Peking; Hong Kong; Shanghai; Amoy (Xiamen); Formosa (Tainan); Chefoo (Yentai); Swatow (Shantou); Wuchow (Wuzhou); Wuhu; Nanking (Nanjing); Ningpo (Ningbo); Summer Palace [comprehensive coverage of the ruined Yuanmingyuan area]; Soochow (Suzhou); Ninghua; Harbin (Ha’erbin); Haikou; Jiujiang; Hangchow (Hangzhou); Taku (Dagu); Chengdu; Wenchow (Wenzhou) and many others…
Special Items
1844 daguerreotype of Macau by Jules Itier [earliest photograph of China]; Group of Milton Miller 1860s photos of Chinese Mandarins; Group of 54 photos of important Chinese Works of Art taken in 1869; group of ariel photographs of Beijing and Tianjin and Summer Palace taken in 1900 by French Military Balloon [first photographs of China taken from the air]; Group of 7 portraits of Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi taken by the court photographer, Yu; large number of photographs by Tung Hing and Afong Lai [arguably the two best Chinese photographers of the nineteenth century]; Group of photos of Thomas Hanbury and Chinese Merchants taken in 1866; large group of 1858 Guangzhou photos [Negretti & Zambra ‘Views In China’ - first commercial photographs of China]; early photographs of Beijing [1860, FelixBeato]; first photographs of Shanghai; many early stereoviews and cartes de visite; Volumes of the rare periodicals: The China Magazine and the Far East [contains original photos from the 1860s-70s]; many multi-plate panoramas of Chinese cities [Two 12-plate panoramas of Shanghai Bund by Kung Tai, also 8-plate and 7-plate panorama of Shanghai Public Gardens]; more than 20 separate panoramas of places throughout China – many others contained in the albums; Superb scenic photographs of Fujien Province and River Min by Afong Lai and Tung Hing; mammoth-plate view of Hong Kong by Charles Weed; more than 265 cartes de visite and many others….
Click here to view a full searchable listing of the collection (PDF - 1.6MB) (opens in a new window)
Click here to to view sample images from the collection
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