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  1. Collections
  2. Swire, G. Warren

Collections

  1. Anthony, Augustus
  2. Armstrong, William
  3. Atchison, George
  4. Baggs, Ernest
  5. Banister Family
  6. Bayley, Arthur
  7. Beales, Florence
  8. Billie Love Historical
  9. Bowra, Edward
  10. British Steel Archive Project (BSAP)
  11. Cadbury Research Library
  12. Carey, Frederic
  13. Carrall Family
  14. Carstairs, Jamie
  15. Chatterton, Jocelyn
  16. Cooper, William
  17. Cottrell Family
  18. Crellin, Thomas
  19. Crowley, John
  20. Darwent, Charles
  21. Davidson, Francis
  22. Dhoot, Helen
  23. Drew, Edward Bangs
  24. Dudeney, Leo
  25. Edinger, Ernest
  26. Elliott Family
  27. Ephgrave, Jack
  28. Evans, David
  29. Fiddament, Arthur
  30. Fry, John Gurney
  31. Fu Bingchang
  32. Funnell, Martin
  33. Grant, William
  34. Hagger, F.
  35. Harris, Lucy
  36. Hayward Family
  37. Hayward, Tita and Gerry
  38. Hedgeland, Reginald
  39. Henderson, David Marr
  40. Hillier
  41. Hookham, Felix
  42. Hughes, Thomas
  43. Hulme, Oliver
  44. Hutchinson Family
  45. Hutton Potts, George
  46. Images from books
  47. Johns, Thomas
  48. Johnson, George
  49. Kelsey Family
  50. Kiki de Chaffoy
  51. Klein, Peter
  52. Knight Family
  53. Lang, Archibald
  54. Liu Haiyan
  55. Maxwell Family
  56. Miscellaneous
  57. Mitchell, Eleanor
  58. Montgomery, John
  59. Morrison, Hedda
  60. Morrison, Ian & Rachel
  61. National Archives, Kew
  62. Needham, Joseph
  63. Northup, Lesley
  64. Oswald, John
  65. P.A. Crush Chinese Railway
  66. Palmer, Attwell
  67. Peck, Harold
  68. Phipps, Ann
  69. Pickens Jr., Rev Claude L.
  70. Plant, Cornell
  71. Richard Family
  72. Rosholt, Malcolm
  73. Ross, Cyril
  74. Royal Asiatic Society
  75. Royal Hampshire Regiment
  76. Rue, Henry
  77. Ruxton Family
  78. Sangha, Ranjit Singh
  79. Shaji Massacre, 1925
  80. Sinton, John
  81. Smith, Sydney
  82. Stanfield Family
  83. Steen, James
  84. Stevens, Dennis
  85. Sullivan, John
  86. Swire, G. Warren
  87. Taylor, Edgar
  88. Thompson, John
  89. Tianjin Post Cards
  90. Tocher, Forbes Scott
  91. Trobridge, George
  92. University of Bristol Library
  93. Vacher-Hilditch
  94. Vinden, Gilbert
  95. Wheeler, Charles
  96. Wilkinson, Edward
  97. Williams, Jim
  98. Wyatt-Smith, Stanley
  99. Young, Stewart

Swire, G. Warren Collection

G. Warren Swire (1883-1949), was a London-based partner in his father's firm, John Swire & Sons Ltd, from 1904 onwards. Each year a director of the firm went 'out East' to visit the company's subsidaries in China, which were run by Butterfield & Swire (Taikoo, 太古公司). Taikoo's biggest subsidiary was the China Navigation Company (太古航業公司). Between 1906 and 1940 Swire made regular visits (including: 1906-7, 1911-12, 1919-20, 1923-24, 1928-29, 1933-34, 1938, 1940). 'G.W.S.' was a keen and proficient photographer, and his photographs seemed to have been taken with the aim of constructing a visual aide memoire of the infrastructure of Taikoo's activities in China. In this collection you will find photographs of company ships, godowns (warehouses), offices, wharves, and the bunds and harbour facilities in which Taikoo operated in coastal and riverine China. Activities in China were tightly managed from London, and it is probably with that pattern of control in mind, that Swire took these photographs. They offer a systematic survey of the infrastructure of the treaty ports, and of the activities of a foreign firm within them, and in that sense offer an unusual survey of China's port cities. See https://wikiswire.com/wiki/George_Warren_Swire.

Please note: Warren Swire used to reference his negatives by writing a reference number in ink on the emulsion side of the negative, so that he could file it in the correct sleeve in his indexed albums. However, this does mean that when a positive image is made from the negative, the inked reference number appears the wrong way round. Most of the 1,967 images in the G. Warren Swire Collection were digitised from celluloid negatives, in thirty-two annotated negative albums (HPC refs: Sw01 through to Sw32). Also two images from glass plate negatives (HPC ref: Sw-n) and five images from a print (HPC ref: Sw-s). The original negatives are now held in Archives & Special Collections, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

These images are copyright John Swire & Sons, Ltd. If you wish to use an image for any purpose other than for research or study purposes or if you require a higher resolution copy of an image then you must contact the copyright owner. Please direct any such requests to hums-chinaphotos@bristol.ac.uk.

  • Debris from construction of dugout, Chungking

    Debris from construction of dugout, Chungking
  • Couple in a dugout, Chungking

    Couple in a dugout, Chungking
  • Chefoo, 1940

    Chefoo, 1940
  • Ships, Taku

    Ships, Taku
  • Donkey carts and store, Taku, 1940

    Donkey carts and store, Taku, 1940
  • Ships, Hotung, Tianjin

    Ships, Hotung, Tianjin
  • Queue at jetty, Swatow, 1940

    Queue at jetty, Swatow, 1940

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