2 February 2022 The ‘Historical Photographs of China’ (HPC) material now held in Special Collections, University of Bristol Library, has been catalogued. For a full overview of the HPC material, please see the catalogue record for DM2956 (which is a list of the digital images and some background information about HPC) on the Special Collections’ Online Archive Catalogue. For a blog about the archive’s holdings and some highlights of the HPC collections, see ‘Pieces of China in Bristol – cataloguing Historical Photographs of China material’.
28 April 2021 Terry Bennett, author of the three-volume ‘History of Photography in China’, provides an update to his research: History of Photography in China: New Discoveries and Research. The article on ‘The Classic Platform’ includes an update to ongoing research into Charles Frederick Moore.
28 April 2021 After fifteen years, the Historical Photographs of China project has ended. The c.75,000 digital images made by HPC are now in the care of the University of Bristol’s archives, Special Collections. The photograph albums, loose prints, negatives and slides, donated to or acquired by the project, are also now in Special Collections. The HPC web site will continue and is being rebuilt on a new platform, due to be launched in 2022. Many thanks to all contributors to the project and to all users of the resource. More information in the blog HPC: A Change of Pace.
25 February 2021 We’ve added a new Featured Collection to the HPC web site – ‘British army in China’. This Featured Collection gathers together whole collections of photographs compiled by members of the British army serving in China or by a regimental museum. So far there are seven collections in the set: George Atchison (67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot), Ernest Baggs (Royal Army Medical Corps), Arthur Bayley (Royal Field Artillery), Ernest Edinger (Royal Army Pay Corps), Royal Hampshire Regiment, Ruxton Family (Weihaiwei or 1st Chinese Regiment) and Stanfield Family (Special Operations Overseas).
5 February 2021 The travelling exhibition ‘China: Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868-1872’ is on at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, England, until 16 May 2021. Please note that the museum is temporarily closed.
27 November 2020 A selection of the Ian & Rachel Morrison Collection is now live on HPC. HPC refs Mo01, Mo02, Mo03 and Mo04.
29 October 2020 A selection of the George Johnson Collection is now live on HPC. HPC refs GJ-s, GJ01, GJ02 and GJ03.
23 October 2020 A selection of the William Grant Collection is now live on HPC. HPC refs WG-s, WG01 and WG02.
2 October 2020 Join us on a journey of over a thousand miles and across a century, travelling from Shanghai to Luzhou along the Huangpu and the mighty Yangzi. Thirty-one images on Instagram @hpcbristol.
15 July 2020 All of NA07 is now live on HPC. These are photographs from an album held at the National Archives, London, referenced as ‘CO 1069/432. CHINA 12. Shantung and Kiaochou: photographs of a tour in 1903’. Shandong, including Jinan, Qufu, Tai Shan, Zibo and Qingdao. 182 images.
3 July 2020 All of the Jack Ephgrave Collection is now live on HPC. The collection features images of printing and rowing, family and friends, aerial views of Shanghai, the Shanghai Volunteer Corps in training, and destruction due to the ‘Shanghai Incident’ in 1932 (Sino-Japanese War). 864 images. HPC refs: Ep01 and Ep02.
19 June 2020 A selection of the Gilbert Vinden Collection is now live on HPC. 40 images. HPC refs GV-s, GV01 and GV02.
10 June 2020 All of the Charles Wheeler Collection is now live on HPC. 86 images. Most of the photographs were purchased, it seems as souvenirs to show and tell. Topics include the Xinhai Revolution and everyday life. HPC ref: Wr-s.
1 June 2020 This month's @hpcbristol theme on Instagram is Hong Kong.
29 May 2020 The F. Hagger Collection is now live on HPC. 257 images, in particular Hong Kong, Weihai and HMS Medway.
20 May 2020 Since September 2019, over 350 images of south China (mostly Hong Kong, but also Guangzhou and Macau), 1860s to 1935, have been added to the HPC site, with the following HPC prefixes: Bk09, JC01, NA15, NA16, NA18, NA20, NA21, NA22, NA23, NA24, NA26 and SR-s. Also new is NA27 (Emigrants from Tianjin, bound for North Borneo). More images have been added to the Richard Family Collection.
1 May 2020 We have entered the world of Instagram. We will be publishing a post a day, and exploring one or two themes a month. Find us at @hpcbristol. To get a taste see https://www.instagram.com/hpcbristol/. Come follow us.
2 April 2020 The John Gurney Fry Collection is now live on HPC. This is an album of many beautiful photographs taken by, inter alia, Lai Fong (Afong Studio) and John Thomson, of Fuzhou and Fujian Province especially.
9 March 2020 Review by Anna Pellegrin Hartley published in The Beijinger, on the Historical Photographs of China web site: Time Travel Through Beijing's Past With This Vast Photographic Archive.
27 February 2020 Historic Environment Scotland announce that a commemorative bronze plaque is to be installed in Edinburgh for the celebrated photographer John Thomson.
27 February 2020 The Historical Photographs of China project is fourteen today.
5 February 2020 Photographs by Lai Fong (Afong Studio), from the Stephan Loewentheil China Photography Collection, will be exhibited at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithica, New York. 黎芳 Lai Fong (c.1839–1890): Photographer of China is on from 6 February 2020 to 14 June 2020.
28 November 2019 The Florence Beales Collection is now live on HPC.
20 November 2019 The Royal Asiatic Society Collection is now live on HPC. This is a collection of thirty lantern slides.
16 October 2019 All of the Eleanor Mitchell Collection (mostly Hong Kong, c.1912-c.1922) is now live on HPC.
26 June 2019 All of the Arthur Bayley Collection (mostly Beijing, c.1901) is now live on HPC.
21 June 2019 Part of the Ernest Edinger Collection is now live on HPC. New images have recently been added to the Richard Family Collection and to the Jamie Carstairs Collection. Also, several very small collections have been reassigned to the Miscellaneous Collection.
16 May 2019 ‘Hong Kong Through The Lens’, a pop up exhibition featuring photographs from the Francis Davidson Collection, will be on display in the Ground Floor Lobby, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU, Hong Kong, on 6th and 7th June 2019. Davidson was a Scottish vet who managed the Dairy Farm at Pokfulam, 1921-23. The exhibition coincides with a public roundtable discussion ‘All Road Lead to Hong Kong – Paths to Becoming a Hong Kong Historian – details at https://bit.ly/30lKYci.
18 April 2019 Introducing the genealogy resource CHINA FAMILIES, a sister site to Historical Photographs of China. Search the various records and directories in ‘China Families’ for information about people who lived or worked or sought refuge in China. ‘China Families’ (https://www.chinafamilies.net/) is to be launched at Family Tree Magazine (@familytreemaguk)’s Family Tree Live event at the Alexandra Place, London next weekend. Professor Robert Bickers is a speaker on Friday 26th April.
18 April 2019 Part of the P.A. Crush Chinese Railway Collection has now been added to HPC.
30 January 2019 The Leo Dudeney Collection is now live on HPC.
21 December 2018 The remarkable Vacher-Hilditch Collection is now on HPC. Two albums contain very early (1850s) photographs of Shanghai and vicinity (also Fuzhou and Hankou), many by William Vacher, William Jocelyn and Robert Sillar. A third album contains photographs by William Floyd of Hong Kong and Macau.
21 December 2018 On until 2 June 2019, China: Through the Lens of John Thomson, at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth, England. Superb large prints made from Thomson’s glass negatives, showing astonishing detail, are exhibited along with objects collected in China by Merton and Annie Russell-Cotes.
12 October 2018 New content has recently been added to these collections: Francis Davidson Collection, George Hutton Potts Collection, Jamie Carstairs Collection and Miscellaneous Collection. The Lucy Harris Collection is a new small collection.
27 September 2018 The Cornell Plant Collection is now up on HPC.
15 August 2018 The Hillier Collection is now on HPC.
9 August 2018 The Maxwell Family Collection is now on HPC. This excellent collection consists of some 563 photographs taken, bought, or commissioned by James Laidlaw Maxwell Sr. (1836-1921) and his son John Preston Maxwell (1871-1961), both pioneering medical missionaries.
7 March 2018 Not to be missed: the acclaimed free exhibition China and Siam Through the Lens of John Thomson, at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London, 13 April to 23 June 2018. Also, public lectures by Michael Wood and Richard Ovenden on 17 May and 14 June.
2 February 2018 A date for diaries: Hong Kong Through the Lens, an exhibition of 26 images, curated by the Hong Kong History Project, is on 17 & 18 February, at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, as part of the museum’s Chinese New Year events.
1 February 2018 Selected images from four new collections are now live on HPC: Martin Funnell, F. Hagger, Eleanor Mitchell and Cyril Ross – also some images from Picturesque Hong Kong.
16 January 2018 All of the William Cooper Collection is now on HPC. This collection is strong on Peking (Beijing) in the tumultuous years prior to the First World War and on the Chinese Labour Corps.
15 November 2017 Part of the Forbes Scott Tocher Collection is now on HPC. These are images of the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Centre (internment camp), Shanghai.
15 August 2017 The Archibald Lang Collection is now on HPC. Images relating to the First World War and to the Chinese Labour Corps have also recently been added to the site. Search for ‘WW1’ or ‘CLC’, respectively. These include images from the William Cooper Collection, part of which has also recently been added to HPC.
31 May 2017 The Royal Hampshire Regiment Collection is now on HPC.
23 May 2017 Three more collections added to HPC today: The Edward Bangs Drew Collection (366 images), The Rev. Claude L. Pickens, Jr. Collection (1,079 images) and The Joseph Needham Collection (1,183 images).
22 May 2017 New to HPC: The Hedda Morrison Collection. 4,684 images, dating from around 1933 to 1946.
16 May 2017 The Stanley Wyatt-Smith Collection is now on HPC. Many of the photographs in this collection document the 1911 (Xinhai) Revolution, in Wuhan.
27 March 2017 The Peter Klein Collection is now up on HPC.
8 March 2017 The parts of the Stanfield Family Collection that relate to John E. Stanfield (i.e. albums JS03 and JS04, 1940s) are now live on HPC.
6 March 2017 Illustrated article about the redesigned HPC web site in the IIAS Newsletter (No.76 Spring 2017), on page 49 (see also page 22).
9 February 2017 The GW4: REMEDIATING THE ARCHIVE blog about the Historical Photographs of China project is a general background to the project and its new website. The issue of the discoverability of images on the HPC site is also discussed.
16 January 2017 New year … new platform: Historical Photographs of China formally launches our new web site today. This site now showcases 10,586 images, including 1,400 recently added images from nine new collections. The new collections are: George Atchison, Martin Crossley Evans, Helen Dhoot, Jack Ephgrave (part), David Evans, Lesley Northup, Malcolm Rosholt, Ranjit Singh Sangha, and James Steen. Images have been added to the Miscellaneous, Jamie Carstairs, National Archives and Arthur Fiddament collections.
30 November 2016 The Historical Photographs of China team in Bristol are working towards relaunching the project web site. The redesigned site, with new collections and more content, is due to be formally launched in January 2017.
8 November 2016 Our Man in China: The Diaries. Edward Stourton presents extracts from the extraordinary diaries of Sir Robert Hart, a Victorian diplomat in China. BBC Radio 4.
20 September 2016 A Symposium entitled Through the Lens: Photography in 19th Century China and Japan is to held at the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum, Moodie Street, Dunfermline, Scotland, on 7 October 2016.
5 September 2016 This autumn/fall there are exhibitions on photographs by Thomas Child and William Saunders from the Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection. Thomas Child, 22nd September - 25th October, New York. William Saunders, 4th - 12th November, London.