Small accordion album with brocade covers and 24 hand-tinted albumen photographs. One side of the accordion pages are studio portraits of Japanese women, either alone or in groups posed in daily activities. The other side shows picturesque scenes of Japan, including Yokohama, Nikko, Kobe, Nagasaki and Mt. Fuji. Photographs are uncaptioned. The gift also includes 24 late 19th - early 20th century commercial postcards of Japan, all hand-tinted
Cite as:
Accordion album of 19th century photographs of Japan. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Elizabeth Ridout
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
British photographer Charles T. Scowen arrived in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the early 1870s, where he was first employed as a clerk. By 1876, Scowen had established a studio, Scowen & Co., in Kandy, with a second location appearing in Columbo by the 1890s. There appear to have been several Scowens working in the studios, as Charles T. Scowen returned to England in 1885. C. Scowen was listed as the proprietor until 1891 and M. Scowen was the proprietor when the firm was finally sold in 1893. Images from Scowen & Co. were used to illustrate a number of books about Ceylon and the tea trade
John Edward Saché (1824-1882) was an American commercial photographer, born in Prussia as Johann Edvart Zachert. He arrived in Calcutta in 1864 and for the next twenty years traveled widely in northern India, photographing major towns and sites. Saché's first professional association was with W. F. Westfield in Calcutta but he would go on to establish other studios, either alone or in partnerships, in Nainital, Bombay, Lucknow and Benares, among other locations
Samuel Bourne (1834-1912) had already begun to earn recognition for his work in England, having exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, when he decided to give up his position in a bank and depart for India to work as a professional photographer. He arrived in Calcutta early in 1863, initially setting up a partnership with William Howard. They moved up to Simla, where they established a new studio Howard & Bourne, to be joined in 1864 by Charles Shepherd, to form Howard, Bourne & Shepherd. By 1866, after the departure of Howard, it became Bourne & Shepherd, the name under which the firm continues to operate to this day. Although Bourne only spent 6 years in India, his time there was extremely productive. He undertook three major expeditions in the Himalayas, creating an impressive body of work which combined the highest technical quality and a keen artistic eye, while working under difficult physical conditions. Bourne left India for good in 1870, selling his interest in Bourne & Shepherd shortly thereafter and abandoning commercial photography
Summary:
27 albumen photo prints, some mounted, many signed and numbered in the negative and some with hadwritten penciled identifications, various sizes. Most taken by British photographer Samuel Bourne to document India. Images depict architectural monuments, city and village views, and picturesque landscapes such as the Great Imambara and Mosque in Lucknow, the quadrangle of the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) in Agra, the Memorial Well in Kanpur (Cawnpore), numerous views of villages, bridges and landscapes in Kashmire, and the botanical gardens at Ootacamund (Udagamandalam). There is also one photograph, an unmounted albumen print, signed and numbered in the negative, by John Edward Saché (active 1860-1880), also depicting a landscape in India. Additionally, an ethnographic portrait (unmounted albumen print) of two Sri Lankan aboriginal men titled "Veddahs" by Charles T. Scown is included in the collection
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
A.G. Wenley worked for the Freer Gallery of Art from 1924 until his death in 1962. From 1942 to 1962 he was the Director of the Freer Gallery of Art
Summary:
This collection consists of the field journals and maps created by A.G. Wenley when he accompanied Carl Whiting Bishop on his archaeological expedition to China on behalf of the Freer Gallery from 1924-1926. The journals are typewritten, with photographs and captions depicting the different sites Wenley visited. There are also duplicate copies with annotations on several of the entries
Cite as:
The A.G. Wenley Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C
Alexander Coburn Soper was a preeminent professor and historian of Asian art, concentrating primarily on Japanese and Chinese architecture, Chinese art from the Tang through the Northern Sung period, Gandharan Indian art, and Buddhist and secular art of the Six Dynasties period. Published widely, he became the editor of the journal Artisbus Asiae in 1958. Over the course of his life he was active in the American Oriental Society, the Japan Society, and the Association for Asian Studies. He was a professor of Art History at Bryn Mawr and the Institute of Fine Arts in New York
Sherwood Ford Moran (1885-1983) was a missionary, social worker, Marine, World War II PoW interrogator, and Asian art scholar. He studied Union Theological Seminary in New York and was then enlisted for work initially in India, but rerouted to Japan in 1917, mostly in the area of Osaka, remaining there until the entry of the United States in World War II in 194. During the war, he was an active Marine and a PoW interrogator at Guadacanal. He became extremely interested in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist art, publishing several articles in Artibus Asiae
Summary:
Offprints of articles by Sherwood F. Moran compiled by Alexander Coburn Soper, accompanied by photographs, a reproduction, and Soper's introduction typescript, assembled in preparation for an unpublished book of Moran' writing entitled "Studies in Japanese Art Treasures."
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
1 print : albumen ; image 24 x 29 cm., mounted 38 x 41 cm
Type:
Photographs
Collection descriptions
Albumen prints
Place:
India, Uttar Padesh, Lucknow
Lucknow (India)
Date:
1858
Siege, 1857
Topic:
History
Local number:
A1999.29
Notes:
Although he was born in Greece, Felice Beato worked as a press photographer in England and achieved recognition for his coverage of British political conflicts, photographing the Crimean War of 1855 and, together with his brother-in-law, James Robertson, the 1858 Indian Mutiny in Delhi and Lucknow. The images Beato took during this time are thought to be the first to depict actual human corpses on the battlefield. After moving to Yokohama in 1863, Beato opened the area's first photography studio and documented the people and culture of Japan for the next twenty years, taking photographs and selling them to tourists. During his travels, Beato was able to gain access to Japanese ports that were open only to diplomats by acting as an official photographer for the British navy
Lucknow was the capital of the former state of Oudh (now spelt Awadh, and a region in the state of Uttar Pradesh), in India. The prolonged defense there by the British proved to be one of the key episodes in the unsuccessful Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858. Alumbagh (Alambagh) was a large residence and garden located about 4 miles from Lucknow. It was used as a fort by the rebels and later as the military command for the British
Summary:
One albumen print by Felix Beato, mounted on card, with "Alumbagh near Lucknow 1857-8" lightly inscribed in pencil below the print. View of the Alumbagh (or Alambagh) palace and surrounding entrenchments, circa 1858
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Richard Bordeaux Parker was born on July 3, 1923, in the Philippines where his father was stationed in the United States Army. He earned a Bachelors of Science in General Science and a Masters of Science in Citizenship Education from Kansas State University. After serving as an infantry soldier during World War II, Parker joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1949. His first tour was spent in Sydney, Australia. He then focused his career on the Middle East, holding a number of posts in Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. In addition, Parker served as ambassador to Algeria (1974-1977), Lebanon (1977), and Morocco (1978-1979.) Fluent in Arabic, he has written/edited seven books to date on subjects concerning the Middle East. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1981 and became the editor of, The Middle East Journal, from 1981 through 1987. In addition to his diplomatic career, Parker taught at the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins University, and Lawrence University. He served as the first president of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training from 1986-1989. He is also a member of several organizations including the Advisory Council on Near East Studies at Princeton University, the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Cosmos Club, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Middle East Institute. In June, 2004, he received the American Foreign Service Association's lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy award. Richard B. Parker is married with four children and lives in Washington, D.C
Summary:
The Amb. Richard B. Parker Photographs contains 200 black and white prints, 481 black and white negatives, and two black and white contact sheets of Islamic monuments in Algeria, Cairo, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, and Spain. The Morocco series in the largest in the collection covering four cities. Photographs from Cairo span the years 1965-1968. All other photographs span the years 1970-1979. Originally, the negatives and prints were housed together. Although the negatives are now housed separately from the prints, they are grouped in the original order. All prints are in original order. Most of the photographs have been annotated and/or dated by the creator
Cite as:
Amb. Richard B. Parker Photographs, 1965-1979. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C. Gift of Ambassador Richard B. Parker, 2002
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Anne J. van Biema (1916-2004), former active member and officer of the Ukiyo-e Society of America. Collector of Japanese woodblock prints. Some of her collection of prints, now in the permanent collection of the Sackler, were previously displayed as a loan in the Sackler's "Masterful Illusions" exhibition in 2002
Summary:
Correspondence, research files, genealogical files, records pertaining to the Ukiyo-e Society of America, photographs (some framed, some black and white, color snapshots of prints)
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Antoin Sevruguin (1830s-1933) was an official photographer of the Imperial Court of Iran whose commercial photography studio was one of the most successful in Tehran from the late 1870s to about 1934. The images in this collection provide a rich visual documentation of the Qajar and early Pahlavi dynasties of Iran. The astonishing range of Antoin Sevruguin's photographs, and the prolific output of the studio, provides today's viewer with an important resource for examining the cultural histories and hierarchical elements of Iranian society. They assist the scholar in studying architectural sites that may have been damaged or destroyed, or are unavailable for first-hand investigation. Increasingly, the prints are valued for their artistic elents that may sometimes overshadow their documentary value. Most significantly, Sevruguin's images form part of an ongoing history that links a distant past and place to the present
Summary:
Antoin Sevruguin (1830s-1933) was an official photographer of the Imperial Court of Iran whose commercial photography studio was one of the most successful in Tehran from the late 1870s to about 1934. The images in this collection provide a rich visual documentation of the Qajar and early Pahlavi dynasties of Iran. The astonishing range of Antoin Sevruguin's photographs, and the prolific output of the studio, provides today's viewer with an important resource for examining the cultural histories and hierarchical elements of Iranian society. They assist the scholar in studying architectural sites that may have been damaged or destroyed, or are unavailable for first-hand investigation. Increasingly, the prints are valued for their artistic elents that may sometimes overshadow their documentary value. Most significantly, Sevruguin's images form part of an ongoing history that links a distant past and place to the present
Cite as:
To cite images in Series 1, Myron Bement Smith Collection, please use: Myron Bement Smith Collection. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith, 1973-1985. Photographer: Antoin Sevruguin, negative number when appropriate
To cite images in Series 2, Antoin Sevruguin Photographs, please use: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Jay Bisno
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
The late Lionel D. Bier, art historian and archaeologist, taught art history at Brooklyn College for more than 30 years. He was primarily active in researching the archaeological record of pre- and early-Islamic Iran. Among his noted publications are: Sarvistan: A Study in Early Iranian Architecture (1986) and The Sassanian Palaces and their Influence in Early Islam, from Ars Orientalis (Vol. 23, 1993)
Summary:
Twenty-nine ink and pencil drawings documenting, usually both in plan and elevation, a number of both pre-Islamic and Islamic Iranian architectural monuments, executed on site between 1975 and 1976. Focus primarily is on Sassanian sites. Sites covered include: Bishapur, Firuzabad, Istakhr, Masjid-i Sang, Sarvistan, and Shari-i Ij
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
A.W. Bahr was born in Shanghai in 1877 to a German father and a Chinese mother. He founded the Central Trading Company with a friend in 1898. Throughout the next few years, he remained in China, organizing various art exhibitions with pieces from his own collection. Bahr moved to London, England in 1910, where he continued to exhibit art, finally moving to Canada with his family in 1946. Before his death in 1959, Bahr donated pieces of his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Summary:
This collection contains manuscript drafts and notes for Bahr's memoir, written by Bahr himself and C.R. Cammell, who was also the editor of 'The Connoisseur' magazine. Other papers include correspondence with collectors of Chinese art or other figures in the art world, such as Lord Kitchener, the King and Queen of Sweden, Walter Muir Whitehill, Kenjiro Matsumoto and Senator Theodore Francis Green, among others. The bulk of the collection contains approximately 300 photographs of different Chinese art objects, from jade figurines to pottery to paintings. Most of these photographs are unidentified, but some of them include marginalia that indicate that they were of Bahr's own art objects for publication in books or articles. Photographs which are identified point to art objects also belonging to Bahr. The photographs have been organized based on the object type in the photograph, such as painting, statue or figurine
Cite as:
A.W. Bahr Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Penelope Jane Bahr, November 12th, 2001
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Glass plate photonegatives 160 Box 1-13 12.7x20.3 cm, 15.2x25.4 cm
Modern copy prints 119 Box 14-15 12x19.5 cm
Type:
Glass negatives, Modern copy prints
Collection descriptions
Place:
Japan
China
Date:
circa 1904
Topic:
Geology
Photographs
Local number:
A1991.06
Notes:
Bailey Willis was born at his parents' country estate at Idlewild-on-Hudson, near Cornwall, New York in 1857. He was the son of Nathaniel Parker Willis, a poet and journalist, and Cornelia (Grinnell) Willis of the prominent New England Grinnell family. His maternal granduncle, Henry Grinnell, was a benefactor of Arctic expeditions. His mother was instrumental in nurturing young Willis's interest in nature and exploration. After his father's death when Willis was ten years old, his mother, concerned about her son's "tendency to dream ineffectually," decided to train him in the stern disciplines of mathematics and science (Willis, A Yanqui in Patagonia 4). At the age of thirteen, Willis began schooling in Germany, where he received rigorous Prussian education
Returning to New York in 1874, Willis entered the School of Mines at Columbia University, graduating with degrees in Mining Engineering in 1878 and Civil Engineering in 1879. After graduation Willis worked as an assistant for Raphael Pumpelly, a prominent geologist, by estimating iron and coal resources for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Geological work in the Pacific Northwest convinced Willis to support the preservation of Mount Rainier and its surroundings. The Mount Rainier National Park was established by law in 1899
In 1882 Willis married his cousin Altona Holstein Grinnell. After her death in 1896, he married Margaret Delight Baker, daughter of anatomist Frank Baker. Margaret assisted Willis as draftsman and secretary
Willis first earned international recognition as a geologist in the field of structural geology. Following the bankruptcy of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1884, Willis worked on assignments from the United States Geological Survey. While working in the southern Appalachian Mountains, he became interested in what had caused folding and faulting. By using laboratory experiments, Willis investigated the conditions causing the deformation of strata and published his new interpretation of the deformation in the report "The Mechanics of Appalachian Structure" (1893). This study established him as one of the country's leading structural geologists. His later book Geologic Structures (1923) went into three editions
In addition to geological studies in the United States, Willis actively engaged himself in foreign expeditions throughout his life. From 1903 to1904, Willis led a scientific expedition to China under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. With Eliot Blackwelder, an associate geologist, and R. H. Sargent, a topographer, the expedition investigated the geomorphology, stratigraphy, and paleontology of the country. The result of the expedition appeared as Research in China in 1907, which won a gold medal from the Geographic Society of France. Furthermore, in recognition of this work, Willis was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Berlin in 1910. In the same year the Argentine government invited Willis to conduct a geological survey of Patagonia for the region's irrigation potential
In 1915, at age 59, Willis accepted a position of Chairman of the Department of Geology at Stanford University, where he remained affiliated as a professor emeritus after his retirement. In California, Willis extended his research to the area of seismology, and served as President of the Seismological Society of America. Believing in the permanence of continents, he held an oppositional view to the continental drift theories. In 1949, Willis died in Palo Alto, California at age 91
Summary:
Bailey Willis Glass Plate Photonegatives Collection consists of 160 glass plate photonegatives and 119 modern copy prints mostly of Japanese subjects. Depicting Meiji-era Japan and traditional paintings, the photographs are attributed to the prominent American geologist Bailey Willis, who travelled to Japan in 1904 in his return trip from China to the U.S. From 1903 to 1904, Willis led a scientific expedition to China to conduct geological and paleontological investigations under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The expedition was proposed by Dr. Charles D. Walcott, the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, who would become the fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1907. After the expedition, the Smithsonian Institution took custody of 375 glass plate photonegatives taken by Willis during his Chinese expedition. Although the current Willis Collection does not retain Chinese glass plate photonegatives, which appear to be housed in the Huntington Library, the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives holds twelve original prints made from them. The Willis Collection richly documents Japanese local scenes, people, buildings, industries, agriculture, and art. It also contains a small number of Middle Eastern and Western images. These photographs are thought to be taken and/or purchased by Willis during his short stay in Japan in 1904
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Far Eastern art writer, curator, and lecturer, Benjamin Franklin March Jr., was born in Chicago on July 4, 1899 to Benjamin and Isabel March. He studied, lectured, and wrote in the United States and China and through his works gained respect as one of the foremost authorities on Chinese art during the 1920s and 1930s. Although he lived only thirty-five years, Benjamin March was a respected and influential scholar of Asian art
Summary:
The Benjamin March Papers span the years 1923 to 1934 and measure 11.75 linear feet. The collection includes: biographical data included in passports, obituaries, and fifty-seven condolence letters; lecture and course outlines; research notes; four diaries; one scrapbook; four illustrations including sketches for the March bookplate; fourteen photograph albums; printed matter; and 100 personal and artistic photographs
Cite as:
Benjamin March Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Judith March Davis, 1995
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Art collector; Detroit, Michigan. Collected Asian, American, and European art, including a large collection of works by James McNeill Whistler. Founded the Freer Gallery of Art, which is now part of the Smithsonian Institution
Summary:
This collection includes correspondence regarding the Biblical manuscripts purchased by C.L. Freer in Egypt and the scholarly study and publication of these manuscripts
Cite as:
Biblical Manuscripts and Gold Treasure collection, Charles Lang Freer papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the Estate of Charles Lang Freer
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Carol Bier is an historian of Islamic art who is Research Associate at The Textile Museum in Washington, DC, where she served as Curator for Eastern Hemisphere Collections from 1984-2001. Her research focuses on Islamic patterns as intersections of art and mathematics
The late Lionel D. Bier, art historian and archaeologist, taught art history at Brooklyn College for more than 30 years. He was primarily active in researching the archaeological record of pre- and early-Islamic Iran. Among his noted publications are: Sarvistan: A Study in Early Iranian Architecture (1986) and The Sassanian Palaces and their Influence in Early Islam, from Ars Orientalis (Vol. 23, 1993)
Summary:
Photographs taken by Carol Bier and Lionel Bier, comprising two binders of black and white 35mm negatives and contact sheets as well as a collection of color slides documenting both pre-Islamic and Islamic Iranian architectural monuments, taken 1975-1976. Focus primarily on the Sasanian sites of Fars province, focusing on built monuments, rock reliefs, and rock-cut monuments. Sites include: Firuzabad, Naqshi-Rustam, Naqshi-Rajab, Bishapur, Sarvistan, and Taq-i Bustan. Also includes a small number of ethnographic images by Carol Bier, predominanly of the Qashqai and Mamasani. Some of these images have been used previously in publications by both the authors themselves as well as other scholars
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Catherine Glynn Benkaim is a trustee of the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and has a master's degree in Asian art history from U.C.L.A,. as well as a doctorate in Indian art history from the University of Southern California
Samuel Bourne's photographic career in India, which spanned only seven years before his departure in 1870, began with his arrival in Calcutta in 1863. In Simla, he formed a partnership with two established photographers, Howard (likely William Howard) and Charles Shepherd. Howard soon left, and within a few years, Bourne & Shepherd had become the most successful firm in the subcontinent, opening additional studios in Calcutta (1867) and Bombay (1870). Colin Murray (d. 1884) became the main photographer of Bourne & Shepherd in 1870
William Johnson had a daguerrotype studio in Bombay circa 1852-1854 and a photographic studio circa 1854-1860. In partnership with William Henderson, Johnson produced the "Indian Amateur's Photographic Album" (1856-1858)
Summary:
Seven 19th-century albumen photographs taken by Samuel Bourne, Colin Murray and unknown photographers (possibly William Johnson and William Henderson). The photographs depict various scenes and people of India, including a portrait of a hunting party in Nepal, images of the Queen Victoria Monument in Bombay and views of Dal Lake, Calcutta and Kutb Minar
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Colonel Alfred C. Oliver Jr. graduated from Princeton University in 1917, and subsequently became an Army Chaplain, serving in both the First and Second World Wars. Oliver spent two years in China from 1930-1932. In 1942, he was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese in the Phillipines. Upon surviving the Bataan death march, he was kept imprisoned until his release in 1945. Over the course of his life, he was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital (Washington, D.C) , in Hawaii, and in Fort Harrison, Indiana, where he became involved in the Civilian Conservation Corps. He co-authored with Harold M. Dudley a book entitled '"This new America : the spirit of the Civilian conservation corps" (1937) regarding his experience in this work. He retired from the Army in 1946
Summary:
Lantern slides and stereopticons, black and white and hand-colored, assembled by Chaplain Oliver (he appears in several), depicting monuments and scenes, especially in Beijing, such as Ming tombs, temples, the Summer Palace, landscapes, place views, military soldiers, Chinese people, Western visitors, and daily life. Also includes images of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Four boxes of the slides are housed in original wooden slide cases with Chaplain Oliver's name and the subject of the slide within painted on the cover. Many slides are numbered on the mount ; some credit the Hui Wen Photo Department, Tiensin Hui Wen Academy
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
British photographer Charles T. Scowen arrived in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the early 1870s, where he was first employed as a clerk. By 1876, Scowen had established a studio, Scowen & Co., in Kandy, with a second location appearing in Columbo by the 1890s. There appear to have been several Scowens working in the studios, as Charles T. Scowen returned to England in 1885. C. Scowen was listed as the proprietor until 1891 and M. Scowen was the proprietor when the firm was finally sold in 1893. Images from Scowen & Co. were used to illustrate a number of books about Ceylon and the tea trade
Skeen & Co. was a commercial photography studio active in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from 1860-1903. In 1860, William Skeen, who was the official Government Printer, purchased J. Parting's photography studio in Colombo for his son, William Louis Henry Skeen, who had studied at the London School of Photography. In 1891 another Skeen & Co. studio was opened in Kandy. The firm was known for its images of agriculture (particularly tea and spices), industry (the construction of the Ceylon railroads and the Colombo Breakwater), landscapes and ethnic groups
Summary:
46 undated albumen photo prints, six hand-colored, some captioned, various sizes. Taken by Scowen & Co., Skeen & Co., and unknown photographers. Images depict Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Japan and China. Included are portraits, people in daily activities, street scenes, city views, architecture, fauna and gardens, and landscapes
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Charles Lang Freer was a wealthy industrialist who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. He was a well-known collector of Asian art, and strongly supported the synthesis of Eastern art and Western art. One of his most famous acquisitions was James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room
Summary:
The personal papers of Charles Lang Freer, the industrialist and art collector who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. The papers include correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, financial material, architectural drawings, and photographs
Correspondence, ca. 1860-1921, includes Freer's correspondence, 1876-1920, with artists, dealers, collectors, museums, and public figures; letterpress books contain copies of Freer's outgoing letters, 1892-1910; correspondence collected by Freer of James McNeill Whistler, and his wife Beatrix, 186?-1909, with Lady Colin Campbell, Thomas R. Way, Alexander Reid, Whistler' mother, Mrs. George W. Whistler, and others; correspondence of Whistler collector Richard A. Canfield, 1904-1913, regarding works in Canfield's collection; and correspondence of Freer's assistant, Katharine Nash Rhoades, 1920-1921, soliciting Freer letters and regarding the settlement of his estate
Also included are twenty-nine pocket diaries, 1889-1890, 1892-1898, 1900-1919, recording daily activities, people and places visited, observations, and comments; a diary kept by Freer's caretaker, Joseph Stephens Warring, recording daily activities at Freer's Detroit home, 1907-1910
Inventories, n.d. and 1901-1921, of American, European, and Asian art in Freer's collection, often including provenance information; vouchers, 1884-1919, documenting his purchases; five volumes of scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeill Whistler, 1888-1931, labeled "Various," "Peacock Room," "Death, etc.," "Paris, etc.," and "Boston...London" ; three volumes of newsclippings, 1900-1930, concerning Freer and the opening of the Freer Gallery of Art
Correspondence regarding Freer's gift and bequest to the Smithsonian Institution, 1902-1916; and photographs, ca. 1880-1930, of Freer, including portraits by Alvin Langdon Coburn and Edward Steichen, Freer with others, Freer in Cairo, China and Japan, Freer's death mask, and his memorial service, Kyoto, 1930; photographs of artists and others, including Thomas Dewing, Ernest Fenellosa, Katharine Rhoades taken by Alfred Stieglitz, Rosalind B. Philip, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abbott H. Thayer, Dwight Tryon, and Whistler; and photographs relating to Whistler, including art works depicting him, grave and memorial monuments, works of art, the Peacock Room, and Whistler's memorial exhibition at the Copley Society
Cite as:
Charles Lang Freer Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer
1 print : albumen ; image 40 x 52 cm., mounted 56 x 70 cm
Type:
Photographs
Collection descriptions
Albumen prints
Place:
Japan, Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama
Japan
Mississippi Bay
Yokahama (Japan)
Date:
1866
circa 1866
Topic:
Bays
Local number:
A2001.8
Notes:
The American photographer Charles Leander Weed became well-known for his photographs of California, especially his spectacular views of Yosemite. Weed spent some time in the early 1860s in Hong Kong, where he established a studio with the Chinese name Wit Ying-Seung. When this proved unsuccessful, he traveled in Asia, then returned to California. In 1866-1867, he traveled again to Japan and China, where he made mammoth-plate landscapes that were issued as a series entitled "Oriental Scenery" by the publisher Thomas Houseworth. This mammoth-plate albumen print shows the coastline of Negishi Bay, located south of Yokohama Bay. Located just over one mile due south of Yokohama, across a narrow peninsula, Negishi Bay was known to the foreign residents of Yokohama in the 1860s by its American designation, Mississippi Bay, a nomenclature that was based on the name of one of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's naval vessels. This photograph was taken from a vantage point along the coastal road about two miles southwest of Yokohama, facing in the direction of the city and the more distant capital city, Edo. This site was well within the boundaries established by the Ansei treaties of 1858 for travel by foreigners without special permits
Summary:
One sepia monochrome albumen print taken from a wet collodion glass plate negative, by Charles Leander Weed, circa 1866. Printed caption on mount reads "Fishing Village on Mississippi Bay -- Near Yokohama 18". Printed text on the reverse identifies the publisher, Thomas Houseworth, 317-319 Montgomery St., San Francisco. The reverse also includes a reproduction of a medal won by Thomas Houseworth at the Paris International Exhibition 1867 for the "finest photographs of scenery of the Pacific Coast." The photograph depicts a road running along white cliffs next to a fishing village on Mississippi Bay (Negishi Bay), near Yokohama, Japan
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Access is by appointment only, Monday through Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please contact the Archives to make an appointment: AVRreference@si.edu
Summary:
Cixi (慈禧太后 勋龄 颐和园 鱚 隆裕皇后 瑾妃 德龄公主 容龄 裕太太 李連英 崔玉贵
Cite as:
Cixi, Empress Dowager of China, 1835-1908, Photographs, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Purchase
Data Source:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
