Bailey Willis Photographs of China

Object Details

See more items in: Charles Lang Freer Papers; Charles Lang Freer Papers / Series 12: Photographs / 12.5: China

Biographical / Historical: Bailey Willis (1857-1949) was a geological engineer who worked for the U.S. Geological Survey. He was born in New York and studied at Columbia University. Willis surveyed regions of Appalachia and the Northwestern U.S. He visited Mt. Rainier in 1882, and later contributed to its designation as a National Park. is publications on the region's geology garnered international attention from scientists. In 1903, he led an expedition funded by the Carnegie Institution to northern China, an area previously unexplored by geologists. In 1949, Willis published his recollections of the expedition in his book "Friendly China."

Archival Repository: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection Citation: Charles Lang Freer Papers. FSA A.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Existence and Location of Copies: Most of the negatives have corresponding collodion or gelatin silver prints, which are housed separately.

Scope and Contents: 14 photographic prints of locations in China, taken by the Geologist Bailey Willis in 1903-1904 during a Carnegie institution funded geological expedition through China. Scenes include pagodas at Wutaishan and Tang dynasty Nestorian monuments outside of Xi'an. Documentation is sparse, but the photographs appear to have been sent to Charles L. Freer by Willis in November of 1908. At the time, Freer was considering purchase of a modern replica of the Nestorian Stele. His examination of Willis' original photograph of the stele confirmed that the replica was not worth acquisition.; 大秦景教流行中國碑; Photographs of China by Bailey Willis