Visual Materials

Photograph album of tourist sites in Japan

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Description: A handmade album with 49 hand-tinted photographs of Japanese tourist sites. Many of the photographs can be attributed to the pioneering Japanese commercial studio photographer Tamamura Kozaburo.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: [approximately 1900s]
Call number: photCL 13
Provenance: Gift of the Estate of Guendolin Virginia Laughlin, 1943. Bookplate of Guendolin Virginia Laughlin on the front pastedown of the album.
Dimensions: images 20 x 25, pages 27 x 34 cm, album 28 x 35 cm
Associated people: Kozaburo, Tamamura,; Laughlin, Guendolin Virginia,

Photograph album of China, Korea, and Japan

Visual Materials

A photograph album containing 263 photographs of China, Korea, and Japan, dating from the time of the Boxer Uprising in China to the Russo-Japanese War, 1901 to 1905. The photographs are primarily unique images, along with some commercial photographs and foldout panoramas, and many have handwritten captions. The album's inside cover is inscribed: "John Rory Macey / H.M.S. Blenheim / China Station / Vol. II / Jan 1st 1901 - July 18th, 1905"; Macey was a naval engineer in the British Admiralty and most likely took some of the photographs, particularly naval-related scenes, and images of British servicemen. Photographic subjects in China include navy ships in the port of Weihaiwei, street scenes in Peking (Beijing) and other cities, Chinese residents, monuments (including the Forbidden Palace under foreign occupation), palaces, gardens, and temples. A number of photographs focus on the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising, including ruined buildings. The second portion of the album depicts scenes in Korea during the Russo-Japanese War; these include Korean people in daily activities, street scenes, commercial images of Chemulpo, and the palace grounds in Seoul. The third portion of the album contains amateur and commercial photographs of Japan, including the port cities of Maizuru and Yokohama, Japanese residents, tea ceremonies, the hot spring resort of Tonosawa, and panoramic images of the Osaka Exhibition of 1903. At the back of the album are 17 large, hand-colored photographs of Japan, including images of landscapes, street vendors, and Japanese women in genre scenes.

photCL 632

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Fascinating features of fair Japan

Visual Materials

An album with 50 hand-tinted photographs of Japan showing gardens, shrines, temples, palaces, parks, resorts, scenic landscapes, and traditional Japanese arts and occupations, such as Ikebana, Sumo wrestling, No theater, and rice planting. The images include "Three Views of Japan": the islands at Matsushima, the shrine at Itsukushima, and the sandbar at Ama no Hashidate. There are photographs of various sites in Tokyo, Kyoto, Kyushu, and Nikko.

photCL 60

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Photograph album of a Japanese American soldier in the U.S. occupation forces in Japan

Visual Materials

A personal photo album compiled and annotated by a Japanese American serviceman who served in the U.S. occupation forces during the post-World War II occupation of Japan. The album begins with his departure from Hawaii to Japan in 1946, including one image of his old school, McKinley High School in Honolulu. In Tokyo, there are many photographs of fellow soldiers, as well as Japanese young men and women; buildings and landmarks; parks; and army buildings. Two images of a large building are described as General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters in Tokyo, and there is one image of him walking out of the building. Besides Tokyo, the soldier is seen in Kamakura and Otake, near Iwakuni, where he may have been stationed later. Of note are a few images of building destruction in Hiroshima, 1947, in the aftermath of the atomic bombing. At the back of the album are many single and group portraits of Japanese residents, possibly family members or acquaintances in Iwakuni and Otake. The album has handwritten captions in English, with occasional captions written in Japanese.

photCL 667

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Travel album to Great Britain

Visual Materials

An album of commercial black-and-white photographs depicting popular tourist destinations in England sometime in the 1930s. The album begins with one exterior view and several interior views of the SS Europa ocean liner of the North German Lloyd line. Once in Great Britain, there are views of London, Warwick, Stratford-on-Avon, Lincoln, York, the Lake region, Tintern Abbey, Raglan Castle, Chepstow Castle, North Devon, Clovelly, Exeter, and Bournemouth. The images depict landmarks including cathedrals, castles, town streets, and well-known residences and buildings, that are all identified in handwritten captions. There are no personal photographs included and no indication of the compiler or owner. The photographs of Clovelly are hand-tinted.

photCL 536

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Caroline Adelaide Lankershim photograph album

Visual Materials

An album containing 38 cabinet card studio portraits showing the family and friends of Caroline Adelaide Lankershim, the wife of Los Angeles land developer James Boon Lankershim. 26 of the photographs are of women of varying ages, including one of a young woman, presumably a Mills Seminary classmate, with the handwritten inscription on the verso: "Belle of Mills Sem. Sept. 19 1878, To Carrie from Jane." A photo by K. Takamura of Yokohama is hand-tinted. The photographs are from various studios in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, especially Taber (San Francisco, California) and Bradley & Rulofson (San Francisco), and from Falk (New York City, New York), T.E. Stanton (Los Angeles, California), F.G. Schumacher (Los Angeles, California), and Dames & Butler (San Francisco, California).

photCL 53

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Yoshiko Doida photograph album

Visual Materials

A photograph album documenting Japanese American Yoshiko Doida's experiences studying abroad in Hiroshima, Japan, 1933 to 1938. A Los Angeles nisei, Doida was likely part of a group of Japanese American students who were selected for scholarship programs to study in Japan in the 1930s. The album's inside cover is gilt stamped "Yoshiko Doida, L.A., Betsuin Y.W.B.A." (Young Women's Buddhist Association). The first photographs begin with her 1933 steamship journey from Los Angeles to Hawaii, and then to Japan, where she is seen posing with Japanese family members. The remainder of the album contains family photographs, studio portraits of Yoshiko in traditional Japanese clothing and hairstyle ("first time in Shimada" she writes), visits to shrines and tourist sites, and many images of Yoshiko at school in Hiroshima. Handwritten captions appear throughout, mostly in English, with some in Japanese. She is seen pictured with her class at Hiroshima Women's College in 1934, and with school friends in town and on outings to the beach, Mount Aso, the "Famous Iwakuni Bridge," and elsewhere. There are a few formal portraits of Yoshiko with her parents, and her parents are also in scenes in Japan. It is likely that some of the sites in Hiroshima that are pictured were later destroyed by the atomic bomb during World War II.

photCL 646

Photograph album of tourist sites in Japan

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