Moderated by Doug Sheer, with speakers A. D. Coleman.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Artists Talk on Art records, circa 1974-2018. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This series contains images from Bishop's travels on different media. There are small amounts of oversize photos, line drawings, rubbings and maps, and a few collected photo postcards, 1915-1933. The bulk of this series consists of original, undated silver prints (nearly three-quarters have corresponding glass and film negatives in Series 4). The nearly 3,000 images were arranged and indexed by Bishop into subject headings using a decimal system. These may have been captioned with date, description, location, and negative number. Most of the photographs were taken, and in large part developed, by Bishop and his assistant Kwang-zung Tung, under rough-and-ready field conditions.
The earliest photos are from Bishop's archaeological reconnaissance in China, Korea, and Japan during 1915-1918, for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. The majority of the images document FGA sponsored expeditions to China during 1923-1934. Specific digs are shown, including the American, Japanese, and Chinese archaeologists and laborers who worked on the excavations; Chinese cityscapes, villages, landscapes, waterscapes, general scenes, transportation modes, courtyards, pagodas, palaces, temples, the T'ien-lung Shan Buddhist caves, bronzes, ceramics, et al.; and also a few sites in Hong Kong, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. Postcards depict the peoples of Korea, and civil war scenes around Beijing.
Numeric List and Subject Index to Bishop Still Photo Prints (Box 15-21): Note: Still prints in Box 15-21 have been arranged numerically according to Bishop's decimal system. For additional caption information, see the Subject Index that follows the Numeric List. The Subject Index was compiled by Sarah Newmeyer.
The papers concern Bishop's Gallery-sponsored travels to China, 1923 to 1927 and from 1929-1934, while acting as Associate Curator at the Freer Gallery of Art. The collection includes a large collection of still prints and maps.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 Kwang-zung Tung during the Freer Gallery-sponsored expeditions of 1923-1934. This selection of digitized prints showcase prints which are not reflected in the Bishop manuscript or the photograph books. These selected images include place views of various excavations that featured prominently in the Bishop manuscript as well as the writings of A.G. Wenley and Dr Li Chi, who accompanied Bishop during his archaeological excavations in China. These include place views of Shansi, Shensi, Hsi-yin-Ts'un, Yu Ho Chen, Yun Kang and Peitaiho. In addition, images from Bishop's photographs of Mongolia, Manchuria and Nanjing, which are focused less on the excavation activities and depict more of the social and physical landscape of the areas Bishop visited, were chosen to reflect the comprehensive nature of Bishop's still print collection.
Carl Whiting Bishop, Series 2: Photography Prints
Arrangement:
This is a miscellaneous selection of still prints which are part of the Bishop collection, Series 2: Prints and Maps, 1915-1933.
Biographical / Historical:
Carl Whiting Bishop was an Associate Curator and Associate in Archaeology at the Freer Gallery of Art from 1922 to 1942.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.02 2
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection 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.
