Charles Lang Freer's photographic glass plate negatives taken during travels in China

Object Details

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

Arrangement: The negatives have been given individual numbers that roughly correspond chronologically to Freer's travels.

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: Glass plate negatives taken by Chinese photographer Yü Tai for Charles Lang Freer during his journey to the cave temples of Longmen in Henan Province, and a subsequent trip to Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province between October 1910 and February 1911. Freer spent 2 weeks at Longmen, making extensive notes and photographs of the Buddhist sculptures. Many cave features have been subsequently damaged, destroyed, or pilfered, hence, many of the photographs are unique documents of earlier states. Other Henan Province locations depicted include Kaifeng, Gongxian, and Luoyang; Sites and monuments include the Iron Pagoda in Kaifeng; the Gongxian Buddhist cave temples, and Song Dynasty Imperial Tombs. Hangzhou sites include West Lake; Leifeng Pagoda; Lingyin Temple; Feilaifeng, and the tomb of Yue Fei. A small number of negatives appear to be copies from books or prints.; 鞏縣杭州龙门洛阳开封