35 Items (albumen prints mouned into album (2.5 linear ft.), black and white)
1 Photograph (black and white)
1 Glass negative (black and white)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Glass negatives
Albumen prints
Photograph albums
Place:
India -- History -- Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858
India -- Delhi -- Delhi
Date:
circa 1858
Scope and Contents:
35 albumen prints by Felice Beato, mounted into album format with captions, entitled "Photographs of Delhi and c.," depicting views of the Indian Mutiny near Delhi, India, ca. 1858. The photographs are an important record of buildings in Delhi which were subsequently destroyed by the British.
Arrangement:
One box; Arranged by size of material
Biographical / Historical:
Felice Beato (born 1833 or 1834, died c. 1907), sometimes known as Felix Beato, was a Corfiote photographer. At the time of his birth, Corfu was part of the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands, and so Beato would have qualified as a British subject. Corfu had previously been a Venetian possession, and this fact goes some way to explaining the many references to Beato as "Italian" and "Venetian" member of the Corfiot Italians. The Beato family is recorded as having moved to Corfu in the 17th century and was one of the noble Venetian families that ruled the island during the Republic of Venice.
Beato was one of the first photographers to take pictures in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. His photographs represent the first substantial oeuvre of what came to be called photojournalism. He is noted for his genre works, portraits, and views and panoramas of the architecture and landscapes of Asia and the Mediterranean region. Beato's travels throughout Asia gave him the opportunity to create powerful and lasting images of countries, people and events that were unfamiliar and remote to most people in Europe and North America. To this day his work provides the key images of such events as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Opium War. The Indian Rebellion or Indian Mutiny, also called Sepoy Mutiny (1857-58), was a widespread uprising against British rule in India begun by Indian troops (sepoys) in the service of the British East India Co. Beato documented the aftermath of the gruesome events, depicting military groups, bullet-scarred walls, blown-out battlements, corpse-littered courtyards, and the hangings of mutineers.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1993.04
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Genre/Form:
Albumen prints
Photograph albums
Photographs -- 1850-1900
Glass negatives
Citation:
Felice Beato Photograph Album - "Photographs of Delhi", FSA.A1993.04. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A1993.04
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Assembled by collectors Dr. Henry D. Rosin and Nancy Rosin to document nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century photography of Japan. Includes albumen prints, portions handcolored, some signed and numbered in the negative. Taken by photographers Felice Beato (b. ca. 1825), Baron Raimon von Stillfried (1938-1911), Kusakabe Kimbei (active 1880s), Ueno Hikoma (1838-1904), Ogawa Kazumasa (1860-1929) and unknown photographers to depict architecture, landscapes, formal studio portraits, and daily activities.
Arrangement:
Organized chronologically by the creators.
Biographical / Historical:
Henry and Nancy Rosin were collectors of Japanese photography of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
1 Photograph album (Album 3 : Disassembled album of +-130 untinted albumen prints)
Container:
Volume 3
Type:
Archival materials
Photograph albums
Photographs
Photographic prints
Place:
Japan
Date:
[1860 - ca. 1900]
Scope and Contents:
A group of 130 photographs compiled by the geologist Benjamin Smith Lyman while in Japan in the 1870s. Roughly half of the photographs are mounted on heavy album leaves, while the rest are unmounted. Subjects include scenes and monuments in Japanese cities and countryside, as well as genre views of Japanese people, both outdoors and in studio constructs. Many of the latter were taken by the photographer Suzuki Shin'ichi I (1835-1918). The Rosins acquired the album from a sale of deaccessioned books at the Forbes Library in Northampton, which holds Lyman's library. Because the album photographs were dispersed, there may be additional prints in the Rosin Collection that were also originally part of the Lyman album.
Biographical / Historical:
Benjamin Smith Lyman (1835-1920) was an American mining engineer born in Northampton, MA. He attended Harvard, as well as European institutions. Lyman was in Japan between 1873 and 1879 surveying Hokkaido oil and coal deposists for the Meiji government. Lyman travelled widely in Japan and likely purchased many of the photographs from commercial vendors. Lyman's personal papers from Japan are in the "Benjamin Smith Lyman Collection" at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, along with additional photographs.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
A boxed set of 99 stereographs of Japan produced by the Underwood & Underwood Company, New York. Subjects include famous and scenic views of Japanese urban and rural spaces, as well as views of Japanese people.
Biographical / Historical:
Underwood and Underwood was the dominant stereograph marketer in the early 20th century, producing hundreds of sets taken by photographers throughout the world. The Japan set was published in 1904.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Printed catalog of the Kimbei Studio in Yokohama, one of the leading commercial studios in Japan in the mid and late Meiji period. The catalog is divided by Costumes (mostly studio portraits and assemblages), and then by scenic regions. The catalog has extensive annotations in pencil and red ink.
Biographical / Historical:
Born to a family of textile merchants in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Kusakabe Kimbei moved to Yokohama in 1859. Although unclear, Kusakabe apprenticed under either Felice Beato and/or Raimond von Stillfried. Kimbei managed a studio in Yokohama, first at Bentendori until 1881, then later at Honchodori. His photo studio catered primarily to visiting foreigners.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
73 albumen photo prints, some mounted, many signed and numbered in the negative and some with hadwritten penciled identifications, various sizes. A small number are hand-tinted. Images depict Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Japan and China. Subjects include portraits, people in daily activities, street scenes, city views, architecture, fauna and gardens, and landscapes. Photographers include Scowen & Co., Skeen & Co. and Samuel Bourne. 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 Kashmir, 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. Scowen is included in the collection.
Arrangement:
Four flat boxes.
Biographical / Historical:
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.
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.
Local Numbers:
FSA A2002.01
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
1 Item (photographic print : on mount 21.3 x 26.8 cm, hand coloring, image19.9 x 25.6 cm.)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Photographic prints
Place:
Asia
Hakone-machi (Japan)
Date:
[1860 - ca. 1900]
Scope and Contents:
A Shinto Torii stands in the foreground, flanked by leafy trees and two stone lanterns. Two kago carries stand near the Torii, with other miscellaneous figures in the immediate left foreground. A lake and mountain are visible in the background. Likely Tamamura Studio.
Hakone is a resort town located west of Tokyo, with views of Mt. Fuji.
玉村
Local Numbers:
R005 (Rosin Number)
FSA A1999.35 005
General:
Title taken from print.
The photographer's original identification number, 626, and original title, Hakone, are printed in the bottom right corner.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
View of Sanmon at Kyoto's Chionin Temple, home to the Jodo sect of Buddhism. Originally part of the Benjamin Smith Lyman album. Lyman purchased this print while traveling in Kyoto in 1879.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
1 Item (photographic print : on mount 25.7 x 20.5 cm, hand coloring, image 24.4 x 19 cm.)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Photographic prints
Place:
Asia
Japan
Date:
[1860 - ca. 1900]
Scope and Contents:
A woman in elaborate costume, with various kanzashi (hair ornaments), poses in indoor setting. Her ornate kanzashi with a sakura motif is reminiscent of those worn by oiran or tayu, the highest ranking of courtesan. Her clothing and hair accessories would suggest that she is perhaps either a real entertainer or a model dressed as one.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
