Related Object Info
[John Thomson's Scrapbook]
Album containing tipped-in albumen silver prints. Blue cloth cover, black leather replacement binding, small black leather label attached to front cover with "Scrap Book" stamped in gold, interior front and back pages covered in yellow/green marbelized paper. Bound in Hong Kong. Some photographs have obscured inscriptions on verso as well as on the album page. Many of the photographs are disbound but remain connected to each other in packets.
Please note: The cataloger numbered the album pages beginning with the front flyleaf; database records have been created for only those pages with text printed on or photographs adhered to them.
This album contains 9 photographs signed in the negative by John Thomson. Five additional photographs in the album are identified as Thomson's work and reproduced in Stephen White's "John Thomson. A Window to the Orient." The remaining photographs in the album are unidentified.
The content and sequencing of this album, however, suggest a much closer connection to Thomson than these few identified photographs.
The first ten views in the album are of Penang, where Thomson first established himself in the Far East in 1862.
The next 14 photographs are of the cyclone that hit Calcutta in October, 1864. Thomson was in India at that time and photographed the aftermath of the cyclone.
The next 12 photographs are also of India, but of other locations, predominantly Lucknow. Thomson remained in India until November, when he returned to Singapore, where he had moved in 1863 and which is pictured in the next 5 photographs of the album.
Thomson then photographed in Siam and Cambodia in 1865/66 before returning briefly to Scotland. There are no photographs in this album from these locations.
Returning to the Far East in 1867, Thomson moved to Hong Kong in early 1868.
In late 1868 and early 1869, Thomson visited Canton. The next 13 photographs in the album are identified as Canton views, while the following 17 views are from Hong Kong.
In 1869, the Duke of Edinburgh visited Hong Kong and a commemorative book with 7 Thomson photographs was published. This album contains a group portrait identified as the Duke of Edinburgh's visit and 6 additional unidentified group portraits.
The parallels between Thomson's life and this album's contents and sequence is very strong, suggesting that not only are the unidentified images by Thomson, but that the album itself may have been a personal album.
The scrapbook includes twelve images signed "J. Thomson" or "Thomson", using a stylus scratched into the surface of the collodion emulsion. Through comparing the sources include Thomson's travelogues and publications, institutions' collections that include Thomson's prints and negatives, and other scholars' works, there are thirty images attributed to Thomson, among which nine are signed. Therefore, there are 33 out of 123 images that can be attributed to John Thomson. Attributions for the other images are unknown.
