Project overview

‘Historical Photographs of China’ seeks to locate, and digitize for preservation and dissemination, photographs of China held in private hands in the United Kingdom. China’s twentieth-century vicissitudes have seen great destruction of its built heritage and of archival and photographic historical records. The project offers material which augments what has survived in China itself. It also provides a substantial resource for the study of European and Chinese photography, for the history of collecting, and for studies of the material culture of life in China, and the after-China lives of those possessing such items.

Since 2006 the project has been working with private owners of material, as well as with some institutions, to digitise and disseminate the material through this website, and through the Visualising China platform, which offers users the opportunity to cross search this collection and two others, as well as to directly suggest corrections or provide additional information.

The initiative began with funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council, and support from John Swire & Sons Ltd further helped it get off the ground and prepare its first exhibition. Subsequent support has come from the British Academy, which accorded it 'Academy Research Project' status in 2006 (renewed in 2012 for five years), and from projects funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and JISC. It has also received important suppport from the Worldwide University Network.


Last update on Friday 6 July 2012 (08:55) by  Robert Bickers

© 2012 University of Bristol - Projet Director: Robert Bickers
Site created by Gérald Foliot with webActors - Hosted by TGE-Adonis

Page rendering in 0.016s