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The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations, with Descriptive Letterpress, of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan

Publisher:
Watson, J. Forbes (John Forbes), 1827-1892.  Search this
Kaye, John William, Sir, 1814-1876  Search this
Extent:
8 Items
Culture:
Bhotia (Sherpa)  Search this
Dom (South Asian people)  Search this
Gond (Indic people)  Search this
Gujaratis (Indic people)  Search this
Kachari (Indic people)  Search this
Kota (Indic people)  Search this
Lepcha  Search this
Mishmi (Indic people)  Search this
Munda (Indic people)  Search this
Naga (Indonesian people)  Search this
Korwa (Indic people)  Search this
Rajput (Indic people)  Search this
Savara (Indic people)  Search this
Thakuri (Indic people)  Search this
Tharu  Search this
Toda (Indic people)  Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Place:
India
Afghanistan
Burma
Pakistan
Iran
Assam (India)
Cachar (India)
Chittagong (Bangladesh)
Delhi (India)
Hazara District (Pakistan)
Hisar (India)
Kohat District (Pakistan)
Lahore (India)
Madras (India)
Mysore (India)
Palamu (India)
Shahabad (India : District)
Shahjahanpur (India)
Sikkim (India)
Sind (India)
Date:
1868
London, C. Whiting Beaufort House, Strand, 1868-1875
Scope and Contents:
Photographers represented include J.C.A. Dannenberg, R.H. DeMontmorency, E. Godfrey, W.W. Hooper, H.C. McDonald, J. Mulheran, G. Richter, Shepherd & Robertson (later as Bourne & Shepherd), B. Simpson, B.W. Switzer, H.C.B. Tanner, C.C. Taylor, and J. Waterhouse.
Taken in the 1850s and 1860s, these photographs portray the people of many castes, culture groups, and occupations in India, posed individually and in groups. Indian culture groups portrayed include Bhogta, Bhoti, Chero, Dombo, Gond, Gujarati, Ho, Kachari, Kishangarh, Kota, Lepcha, Mishmi, Munda, Naga, Pahari, Paithan, Rajput, Saora, Singpho, Thakur, Tharu, and Toda. Peoples portrayed are from parts of India and surrounding areas, now in Afghanistan, Burma, Iran and Pakistan, such as Assam, Bareli, Behat, Cachar, Chittagong, Delhi, Hazara, Hisar, Kohat, Lahore, Madras, Munjpur, Mysore, Palamau, Shahabad, Shahjahanpur, Sikkim, and Sind.
Occupations illustrated include barbers, blacksmiths, carpenters, charcoal carriers, farmers, fish vendors, horse dealers, interpreters, landlords, mendicants, merchants, officials, priests, warriors, and water carriers. Activities shown include dancing and knitting. Artifacts and material culture documented include books, buildings, devotional objects, tools, and weapons such as bows, clubs, shields, guns and spears.
Arrangement:
The collection is composed of 8 bound volumes with 470 albumen photoprints mounted alongside text. Photographs are arranged by region, with culture group and region, some also with name and occupation of subjects.
Biographical / Historical:
John Forbes Watson and John William Kaye assembled this ethnologic study collection from photographs made by British photographers in India. The collection documents the caste and culture groups of India for a British India Office multi-volume publication. A graduate of Aberdeen University in England, John Forbes Watson (1827-1892) served as an assistant surgeon in the Bombay Medical Services from 1850 to 1853. While in India, Watson began to research Indian agricultural resources. In 1858, he became reporter on the products of India for the India Office in England. A year later, he became director of the India Office's India Museum, devoted to promoting trade in the British Empire. While there, he published several monographs on Indian plants and textiles. In 1867, he was appointed keeper of the museum, and served in that capacity until he retired in 1879.
John William Kaye (1814-1876) was secretary of the India Office's Political and Secret Department.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1990.03
Provenance:
Purchase 1990 A1990.3
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
The People of India. FSA.A1990.03. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Purchase.
Identifier:
FSA.A1990.03
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The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations, with Descriptive Letterpress, of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc319eb8b77-b56e-4af8-a83c-0a99ab8df903
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1990-03
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Three Roads to Urga [typescript]

Extent:
1 Item (75 pages of typescript)
79 Items (silver prints, black and white)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Travel diaries
Prints
Place:
Mongolia
Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia)
Mongolia -- Mongolia -- Urga (Ulaanbaatar)
Date:
circa 1920s
Scope and Contents:
A detailed account of uncertain authorship recalling travel to and from Urga (presently known as Ulaanbataar, Mongolia) in Outer Mongolia. The author is perhaps Georg Soderbom; a member of Sven Hedin's expedition who often worked under Frans Larson Soderbom is pictured in many of the collection's silver plates. The account is replete with descriptions of travel conditions and methods, ethnographic notes, an encounter with "the Andrews expedition" (likely the Central Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History led by Roy Chapman Andrews from 1922-1925), and the natural ecosystem. 79 silver prints adorn the text, depicting Soderbom, peoples encountered, vehicles, buildings, and so forth. For the purpose of this collection, all relevant silver prints are numbered as attachments to the appropriate page of the transcript; i.e., the second print affixed to page 32 of the transcript becomes 32b.

While exact provenance of the collection is unclear, it is believed the collection was owned by the Asian art dealer Abel William Bahr (1877-1959). Bahr was born to a German father and a Chinese mother in Shanghai, and became an avid collector of Chinese paintings, jades, and porcelains. He would become a prominent collector and, in 1908, helped to host the first exhibition of Chinese art under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society in Shanghai.
Arrangement:
Organized in the original manner by the creator.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1996.02
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Genre/Form:
Travel diaries
Travel diaries
Prints
Citation:
Three Roads to Urga [typescript]. FSA.A1996.02. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A1996.02
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc33fdfc3c0-f438-4e4d-bbdb-9aeb8cd6c9a2
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1996-02
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Carl Whiting Bishop Collection

Creator:
Bishop, Carl Whiting, 1881-1942  Search this
Names:
Bishop, Carl Whiting, 1881-1942  Search this
Tung, Kuang-zung.  Search this
Warner, Langdon (1881-1955)  Search this
Wenley, A. G. (Archibald Gibson), 1898-1962  Search this
Extent:
20 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Negatives
Photographic prints
Manuscript
Place:
China
Date:
1923-1934
Summary:
An associate curator and associate in archaeology at the Freer Gallery of Art from 1922 to 1942, the collection of Carl Whiting Bishop (1881-1942) document his Gallery-sponsored travels to China from 1923 to 1934 and include an unpublished manuscript describing his archaeological research in China; line drawings; rubbings; maps; note cards; and nearly 4,000 glass and film negatives with corresponding original silver prints. These document his expeditions in northern and central China, illustrating archaeological sites in Henan, Shanxi, and Hebei provinces. Specific digs include the large neolithic site at Wanquan, Shanxi, and sixth century C.E. tombs near Fenyin. Additional images show Chinese cityscapes, daily life and customs, topography, temples, pagodas, caves, and sculpture.
Scope and Contents:
The professional papers and official records of Carl Whiting Bishop include his unpublished two-volume manuscript, [not before 1940]; and photographs, nearly 4,000 images, 1915-1934; and undated. These materials document over a twenty-five year period in the course of Bishop's research and archaeological activities. They were retained at the Freer Gallery of Art after Bishop's death in 1942, and were supplemented with an addition received in 1956 from his widow Daisy Furscott Bishop.

The manuscript was prepared in a typescript format, over 421 pages of text, with photographic illustrations, and completed by Bishop sometime after 1939. Properly titled Archaeological Research in China 1923-1934, this unpublished manuscript constituted a field report that chronicled Bishop's Gallery-sponsored expeditions in northern and central China during the period 1923 to 1934. The reader is provided with a record of the day-to-day operations completed, of obstacles and opposition encountered, and the results obtained from their work. Key diplomatic and scientific representatives from the West and China are recorded who aided and contributed to the investigations. Moreover, there are descriptions of the academic, social and political climate in China during a period of civil war and economic strife. Against this background, Bishop also discussed their efforts in view of the history of China, with commentary on the country's geography, topography, climate, flora and fauna, mineral products, and ancient customs and legends.

The earliest still photographic prints in the Bishop Papers date from his employ at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, where he conducted archaeological reconnaissance from 1915 to 1918 in China, Korea, and Japan. All subsequent images were created or collected by Bishop and his assistant Kuang-zung Tung during the Freer Gallery-sponsored expeditions of 1923-1934. Further descriptions of these materials may be found under Series 2 and Series 3 in this finding aid.

In the transliteration into English of the names of Chinese characters, Bishop followed the Wade-Giles system, with a few exceptions to those rules for certain well known and commonly used place-names, especially those of cities, towns, territorial divisions, and bodies of water. We have retained Bishop's romanization except in certain areas where clarification was needed. The Chinese personal and place-names have been kept as they appeared in his captions.
Arrangement:
Series 1: Manuscript/Writings 1915-1934 and undated

Series 2: Photography Prints

Series 3: Negatives

Series 4: Drawings, Rubbings, and Maps
Biographical / Historical:
Carl Whiting Bishop (1881-1942) was an archaeologist, anthropologist, and specialist in the field of East Asian studies. Born in Tokyo, Japan, on July 12, 1881, he was the son of a Methodist missionary, the Reverend Charles Bishop. Except for a twelve-month residence in the United States during 1889-90, Bishop spent the first sixteen years of his life in Japan, before returning to this country in 1898 for college preparatory work at Northwestern Academy, Evanston, Illinois. He studied at Hampden-Sydney College and in 1912 received an A.B. degree from DePauw University. In 1913 he was awarded the degree of Master of Arts by the Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, where he studied with the noted German anthropologist, Franz Boas (1858-1942). That same year he received his first scientific appointment as a member of the Peabody Museum Expedition to Central America.

From 1914-18 Bishop served as Assistant Curator in Oriental Art at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, where on an expedition for that museum he made his first trip to China. Under the auspices of the university, he conducted archaeological reconnaissance during 1915 and 1916 in China, Korea, and Japan, and again conducted archaeological surveys in 1917 and 1918, although no systematic excavations were carried out at that time. When the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, Bishop enlisted in the United States Navy and was made assistant naval attaché, serving in China in the years 1918-20, with the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. He returned to Columbia University in 1921 to assume the position of Assistant in Anthropology, a post he held until the end of the academic season in 1922.

Effective 10 April 1922, Bishop was appointed as Associate Curator of the Freer Gallery of Art by then director John Ellerton Lodge (1878-1942). Asked to undertake important archaeological work, Bishop headed the gallery's first expedition to China, sponsored jointly by the FGA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, lasting from 20 February 1923 to 6 August 1927. From 16 November 1929 to 11 April 1934, he headed another expedition, sent out this time by the Freer Gallery alone. When conditions in China made further efforts impractical, Bishop returned to Washington in 1934, where he remained at the gallery as Associate in Archaeology until the time of his death on 16 June 1942.

Carl Whiting Bishop was a member of a number of learned societies: the American Oriental Society, the American Archaeological Society, the Anthropological Society, the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the American Geographical Society, and he served on the advisory board of the American Council of Learned Societies until his death.

1881, July 12 -- Born in Tokyo, Japan

1898 -- Attends Northwestern Academy in Evanston, Illinois for college preparatory work Attends Hampden-Sydney College

1912 -- Receives A.B. degree from DePauw University

1913 -- Receives Master of Arts from Department of Anthropology from Columbia University, where he studied with Franz Boas

1914 -- Begins serving as Assistant Curator in Oriental Art at the University of Pennsylvania Museum

1915-1918 -- Makes several archaeological survey trips to China, Korea and Japan

1918-1920 -- Enlists in the U.S. Navy, serving as assistant naval attaché in China

1921 -- Serves as Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Columbia University

1922, April 10 -- Becomes Associate Curator of the Freer Gallery of Art

1923-1927 -- Heads the Freer Gallery's first expedition to China, co-sponsored by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

1929-1934 -- Heads the second Freer-sponsored expedition to China

1934 -- Returns to US and serves as Associate in Archaeology at the Freer Gallery of Art

1942, June 16 -- Dies.
Related Materials:
Additional Bishop material may be found in the following collections also found in the the Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery:

Li Chi Reports, 1926-1929, regarding Li's reconnaissance work at Shi-yin Ts'un, Shansi Province, and the excavation at Anyang.

Archibald Gibson Wenley Papers, 1924-1926, including field diaries, notes, and photographs documenting his participation in the FGA expedition work in China.

Charles Lang Freer Papers, including 1915 correspondence between Freer and Bishop; newspaper clippings related to Bishop, and documents dated 1912-1913, relating to Freer's support for a proposed American School of Archeology in China.

A number of objects from the FGA expeditions, including bronzes, ceramics, and stone sculpture, have been accessioned into the permanent art collection of the Freer Gallery of Art. Additionally, remnants of antiquities, potteries, and metalwork accumulated during the field work, have been placed in the Freer Gallery Study Collection. Records for these items are retained with the Galleries' Registrar's Office.

Additional Bishop material may be found in the Smithsonian Institutional Archives:

Expedition Records, including correspondence of Carl Whiting Bishop, 1914; 1923-1942, nearly 3,000 letters arranged alphabetically by correspondent name; a manuscript catalogue of expedition acquisitions, Peking, 1923-1925; financial records, 1923-1934, including expedition fund ledgers, account statements, and receipts; and newspaper clippings, 1924-1932, documenting the gallery's field work and general archaeological work being conducted around the world at that time.

Smithsonian Institutional Archives, Central Files, Bishop folders, 1923-1942, including expedition letters, field reports, and photographs sent to John E. Lodge.

Personnel and Special Events Photograph Collection, containing portrait photographs of Bishop.

Additional Bishop matieral may be found in the University of Pennsylvania Museum Archives, Philadelphia:

Documentation of University of Pennsylvania Museum-sponsored field work in East Asia may be found there that includes records of C.W. Bishop, dated 1914-1927 (measuring about .5 linear foot), much of it created during his tenure as the Museum's Assistant Curator of Oriental Art from 1914-1918. Included are Bishop's journals consisting of daily entries for two trips to China for the University of Pennsylvania Museum; letters to and from G.B. Gordon, C.W. Harrison, and Jane McHugh, written during Bishop's travel in China and subsequent to his return; and detailed financial accounts of expenditures during the China travels. Additionally, the repository houses a group of Bishop's negatives taken in China to visually record the expedition work.
Provenance:
Gift of Carl Whiting Bishop.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Topic:
Archaeology  Search this
Archaeological expeditions  Search this
Archaeology -- China  Search this
Photography -- China  Search this
Genre/Form:
Negatives
Photographic prints
Manuscript
Citation:
The Carl Whiting Bishop Collection. FSA A.02. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A.02
See more items in:
Carl Whiting Bishop Collection
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc31125ea37-fbdf-4cd0-b413-1b022a34356b
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-02
Online Media:

Fritz Rumpf Notebooks

Creator:
Rumpf, Friedrich Karl Georg, 1888-1949  Search this
Extent:
3 Notebooks (3 notebooks and loose notes. Notebooks are very worn and many pages are likely not in their original order. Notebook 3 is without covers)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Notebooks
Place:
Japan
Berlin (Germany)
Date:
circa 1914-1930s
Scope and Contents:
Three undated notebooks by artist and educator Friedrich Karl Georg (Fritz) Rumpf (1888-1949). With multiple notes in German and Japanese, and drawings in pencil, ink and wash made during his travels and research in Japan. The notebooks also contain many loose paper scraps and letters, including a draft letter addressed to Felix Tikotin.
Arrangement:
Arranged by notebook, thereafter loose material.
Biographical / Historical:
Friedrich (Fritz) Karl Georg Rumpf the Younger was the son of the Potsdam painter Fritz Rumpf (1856-1927). He grew up in Potsdam and at 15 studied Japanese from a Japanese officer who attended the military school in Potsdam. After graduating from middle school, he studied at the Royal School of Arts in Berlin. He moved to Japan in 1908, where he studied woodblock printing under Igami Bonkotsu (1875-1933) and was active in the literary society "Pan no Kai." From 1910 he continued his studies in Berlin under the artist Emil Orlik. At the beginning of World War I he was sent to China as a military officer and was taken prisoner following the surrender of Qingdao to the Japanese in 1914. He was a prisoner of war in Oita and Narashino until 1920. In 1931 under Asian art historian Otto Kümmel, he produced a dissertation on the Ise monogatari woodblock print edition of 1608. Rumpf traveled extensively in Japan throughout his career. In 1927-1928 he accompanied the art collector Felix Tikotin (1893-1986) in Japan.
Local Numbers:
FSA A2015.22
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Genre/Form:
Notebooks
Citation:
Fritz Rumpf Notebooks, FSA A2015.22. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A2015.22
See more items in:
Fritz Rumpf Notebooks
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc30fc2205a-fb43-4923-b2f5-b426e6e55453
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2015-22
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Six Photographic Prints by Francis Frith

Creator:
Frith, Francis  Search this
Extent:
6 Prints (albumen, tipped into album leaves with printed captions on verso)
Container:
Box 1
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Prints
Photographs
Albumen prints
Place:
Egypt
Jerusalem
Thebes (Upper Egypt)
Gizeh (Egypt)
Palestine
Date:
1857
Scope and Contents:
6 albumen prints, dated 1857 on the negative and on the album page, of Egyptian antiquities and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. All are from a disassembled copy of Frith's publication, "Egypt and Palestine. Photographed and Described by Francis Frith. in Two Volumes" Photograph titles are: Rock Tombs and Belzoni's Pyramid, Gizeh; The Granite Pylon, Thebes; Colossi and Sphynx at Wady Saboua, Nubia; Façade of the Great Temple at Abou Simbel; Jerusalem, From the Mount of Olives, No. 1; Jerusalem, From the Mount of Olives, No. 2.
Arrangement:
One flat box.
Biographical / Historical:
Francis Frith (1822-1898) was one of the pre-eminent travel photographers of his day, contributing greatly to the popularization of travel photography. He also founded Frith & Co., a specialty printing and publishing firm largely devoted to travel photography in a variety of formats, including souvenir postcards and individual prints of scenic views. By employing a team of photographers to supply images for his inventory and purchasing the rights to interesting photos from other photographers and publishing them under the studio's name, Frith soon amassed the largest collection of its kind, with a catalog than ran to almost 700 pages.
Local Numbers:
FSA A2016.02
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Temples  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Albumen prints
Citation:
Six Photographic Prints by Francis Frith, FSA A2016.02. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A2016.02
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3650bf5f4-973b-4fab-b5e9-648e38cc8657
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2016-02
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