From Sina:
A Female Photographer’s 1932 Around The World Tour
Mrs. Mary, an old friend in New York, personally handed to me an album of photographs before her passing, a “1932 Around the World Tour” album, containing photographs recording the experiences of Mrs. Mary’s world travels during her youth, vividly showing life at the beginning of the last century. This album not only has precious historical value and legendary origins, from the perspective of photography, it is also an outstanding piece of work.
This album of photographs is from Mrs. Mary Smith, an old friend from my school days. Mary was born to a wealthy New York family, and the gift her father gave her was a cruise ticket to travel around the world. This photo collection are the photographs young Mary took using her camera to record her world travels. Over a decade ago before Mary passed away, she personally gave me this photograph collection to me as someone who also likes photography. I have carefully preserved this album of precious photographs since then, but given that the photos within are already severely yellowing and fading and the urgent need to preserve them, from today forth, I plan to scan these photographs into digital copies for preservation.
Mary’s 1932 around the world tour route picture (scan is “Hamburg-American Line, S.S. Resolute travel manual, this 64-page travel manual was preserved along with the photo album by Mary).
Mary was a talented/exceptional female, and after her worldwide tour, she came back to marry a young surgeon, Dwitt Smith. Not long later, when World War II erupted, Mr. Smith joined the military ranks, saving the dying and nursing the wounded on the Pacific front lines…while the full-of-photographic-and-artistic potential Mary stayed behind to shoulder the burden of raising the children and family alone. As a person who could have become a photography master and artist, this is how Mary quietly disappeared from public view, and her 1932 around the world work likewise remained in her home for decades treated as only a family photo album. This is also why this album of photographic work has only been revealed to the world now. However, Mary’s life was a successful/happy one, personally raising four outstanding children, making many social and welfare contributions, and in her spare time, she enjoyed reading books, traveling, admiring and collecting art and artworks, possessing a unique perspective and special concern for society and culture. While Mary’s life did not include the title of “Photographer” or “Artist” nor did she leave behind any other photographic work, the many works in this album of photographs, when placed together, are equal to the work of masters of the same period like Bresson and Marc Riboud (my personal opinion). The photographs in this album are many, and also very old, so allow me to slowly organize and scan them for everyone to learn and share…posting these nearly 100-year-old photographs is my repayment of to an old friend, ensuring that her photographs were not taken in vain and not lost to history.
[Click images to enlarge]
Who was it that said: “He who does not visit the Great Wall is not a good Chinese/man?” Mary went visited the Great Wall too!
This is a plane ticket to the Great Wall from that time period, there were planes going to the Great Wall in 1932!
Back of the plane ticket.
Comments from Sina:
我也爱11:
Good pictures…thanks for sharing.
alzilong:
Precious!
雕刻时光师:
Precious record of history~!
随风飘吧:
Treasures worth saving/downloading, hehe.
The past, none of the post-70s generation know.
耶娃:
These photographs allow us to revisit history once again!
花瓣鱼:
Seeing these photos is like learning about history. They are worth examining.
随便唠叨:
That photo without clothes is an art or nude photo?!
原创中篇小说:
Classic images capturing the 1932 era, worth saving/downloading.
bj1970216:
Extremely precious photographs, helping us see the old Shanghai and old Beijing.
西安冷焰:
This group of photographs are not just good, but extremely good. They are a group of extremely precious historical material, an extremely realistic recording of a part of China, recording China’s real conditions, and because they are from a tourist’s hand, they are even more realistic.
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first post! I love you F!
If the ‘F’ refers to Fauna, didn’t you just call her a ‘bitch’ an hour ago on the Lou Jing post? And i quote ‘Tell that bitch FURAFURA to fix her website too’.
N.B. i thought i told you to stop that furafura shit.
Interesting enough, I think Singapore most have been a pretty awesome place back in the day, what with being a port for all kinds of scum and villainy. The Mos Eisly of its day.
I think this would have been a great time to travel in general. Not too long after this WWII started, followed by some pretty serious Globalization, a lot of the unique aspects of each place would still be intact.
Sure there was English imperialism, but that brought us those kick ass socks the cop is wearing in Singapore.
Those are not “socks” that the Singapore policeman is wearing. They’re puttees, made of wool, and provide substantial support and protection. The German Army standardized on boots. The British and Americans standardized on puttees.
The thing that always strikes me about historical photos of cities is how little clutter there is above ground level. Fewer cables, no neon signs, etc.
And then there was Communism
yes the communists came along and rehabilitated all of Shangai’s opium users and prostitutes and closed down the slums.
Not many pictures though, I was kinda expecting more. You can’t really get a sense of culture through these pictures. Like I said, I was expecting more.
Awesome photos!
Too bad the girls in Bali don’t walk around topless anymore, the Muslims are probably to blame.
yea those old school pics are straight outta national geographic yoo
you sir are fuckin hilarious!
Nice pics. Shanghai didn’t change that much, destroyed houses and people pulling cart ! :)
– Woods
There is a small scale battles going on there with Japan at that time =].
classic …nice great job
These photos were originally posted on xitek forum (色影无忌论坛) which is one of my favorite photography websites. Xitek’s China Travel channel has some greatest photos taken around China by amateur photographers. Following are some of the photos I like most (please click on numbers below photos to browse through pages):
Desert in Inner Mongolia
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200911/12-31000.html
“Mosaic painting” in Hong Kong Subway
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200911/11-30951.html
Honeymoon in Xinjiang
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200911/06-30648.html
First Snow in Beijing
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200911/10-30827.html
Red Leaves and Autumn in Guangwu Mountain, Sichuan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200911/09-30725.html
Ganzi, Sichuan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200911/10-30799.html
Jiuzhai Valley, Sichuan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200911/04-30378.html
Western Sichuan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200910/30-30047_2.html
Yalong Golf, Sanya
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200910/29-29969.html
Shennongjia, Hubei
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200910/26-29676.html
Workers Cleaning Tian’anmen Square
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200910/23-29547.html
Tibetan Buddhist Temple School, Sichuan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200910/19-29177_5.html
Wulanbutong Prairie, Hebei
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200910/13-28795.html
Hulunbeier, Inner Mongolia
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200910/13-28760_6.html
Bashang, Inner Mongolia
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200909/29-28172.html
Potala Palace, Tibet
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200909/25-27979.html
Kenasi, Xinjiang
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200909/21-27550.html
Sicuan to Yunnan, City and Natural Scenery
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200909/18-27442.html
International Auto Show, Chengdu
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200909/22-27662.html
Fenghuang Town, Impression
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200909/28-28105.html
Traveling in Yunnan and Tibet
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200909/10-26757.html
Langmu Temple, Sichuan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200908/24-25778_4.html
Hiking in Yalagongge, Sichuan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200908/13-25194.html
Qinghai
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200908/04-24658_4.html
Qijiang Old Town, Sichuan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200908/03-24587.html
Hangzhou, Qiandao Lake, Fuchun River
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200907/28-24157.html
14 days in Xinjiang
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200907/29-24241_4.html
Architectures in Qingdao
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200907/09-22687.html
Biking in Tibet
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200907/02-22169.html
Qinghai-Tibet Railroad
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200907/10-22804_3.html
Climbing Everest Mountain
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200907/13-22960.html
Xinjiang, Breathtaking Beauty
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200906/18-21212.html
Streetscape, Beijing
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200905/15-18803.html
Changbai Mountain, Jilin
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200904/17-16733_5.html
Meili, Yunnan
http://travel.xitek.com/chinatravel/200904/24-17239_5.html
wonderful, thank you for the links
The sad part is that a lot of it still looks the same today!
Chris,
I think that I understand. You wish that people who have suffered, could have had a better life. Some of these photos represent a time when China was poor and her people suffered untold indignities. But,notwithstanding suffering, some of us view this period of China history as quite beautiful. A way of life, a culture, a recorded point in time, that will never again be seen. A longing for the past.
Good luck, and see beauty where beauty is.
Have to agree with Bereaver and Chris. Although probably some decent history captions not really that interesting. Not saying that China pre-civil war pics aren’t worth something, just that I have seen better.
I live in Kunming and you don’t have to get that far out of the city center to see scenes like some of these pictures show. 77 years hmmm.
say what you will about what those photos show (nothing THAT interesting, i agree, although they are special, of course)
but that trip must have been like ‘the trip to end end all trips’!
jesus!
1932. RESOLUTE. did you guys look at the first image carefully, the map?
all the stops!?
damn!
then or now, that is a magnificent trip! good on her for traveling like she did.
holy heaven! from new york to fucking gibraltar! seing pretty much everything in between!
amazing!
These are terrific. I can sense all of the locations from experiences of visiting them in the 21st century. The Bangkok one is a scene I’ve never viewed before. I always knew it was called the Venice of the East but never saw it captured before. Thanks.
@python,
thanks for the links!
a pic is worth more than a thousand words! these pics are truly awesome, it’s like going back to the past.
I’m glad there aren’t any pictures with people holding up peace signs.
according to the back of her plane ticket she was not allowed to take a camera onto her plane ride to the Great wall. But yet we see she took a photo at the wall. She broke the law!!!!!!
I guess the Badaling expressway did not exist at that time, amazing that you’d have to take an airplane from Beijing to get to the great wall at that time!
#3133, man still had a braid in Peking in 1932?
Surprised to know that “Nanyuan” was spelled exact the same as today!
The pictures are indeed nice.
What is not nice is how A1Studio, is claiming copyright for what are essentially public domain images. Copyright belongs to the creator of those photographs, and not to the person or company that has a physical print in their possession.
Further, by their emblazoning of their logo right in the middle of the print, one gets the sense that they’re more about shilling themselves than supporting history.
Great images; but shameful theft and commercialism of historic works
LONG LIVE ROC! WAR WILL CONTINUE! WE WILL RETAKE THE MAINLAND!!!