1927 Photo Album - PEKING - Chinese Civil War - 107 ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

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or ...rare books at fair prices...! Search by Topic Africa America - North America -South Arabia - Middle East Arctic - Antarctic Asia - Central Asia - China & Japan Asia - Southeast Australia & Pacific Bibliographies Europe Globes Graphic Arts Literature Maps & Prints Mountaineering Natural History Russia Sciences Signed & Inscribed Sir Richard F. Burton Rare Photograph Album American Marines in Peking Chinese Civil War 1927-1928 Oblong Quarto Album. Beijing, 1927-1928. Photographs of Peking taken by an officer of the Marine Detachment, American Legation, feature scenes of city monuments, rural views, marine life abroad, and Chinese custom. String-tied leather boards with embossed leaf detail, approximately 32 x 26 cm, contains 107 photographs, mostly black and white or sepia, and 2 color photograph postcards, mounted single sided to black leaves. Occasional manuscript captions inscribed onto images. Photographs vary in sizes, the smallest being approximately 3.5 inches x 5.5 inches (9cm x 14cm), and the largest approximately 7.5 x 11 inches (27,5cm x 19cm). A further photograph of the regiment, is found within a red string-tied folding ephemeral holiday card with gilt print, which lists the marines by name. Faint soiling to boards, otherwise in Very Good Condition, with pleasing photographs. These images were taken in a period of political upheaval in China, yet the marine officer has a keen eye for capturing the essence of indigenous life in Peking , affording us a splendid visit looking back nearly a century. Several images show camel convoys headed for the Gobi desert. The Chinese are also seen selling mountains of wares at an outdoor market, fishing, and operating rickshaws. He also made a sojourn to a rural village where men are seen travelling on donkeys sporting a basket to each side, either for harvesting or selling, while another is employing donkeys for ploughing a field. Particularly curious are symbolic statues of dragon-like figures flanking an otherwise undeveloped road. The marine visited the former Chinese imperial palace at the center of Peking known as the 'Forbidden City' as well as some mining tombs, a public swimming pool, the British embassy, the Summer Palace, the 'Temple and Altar of Heaven' of which he provides a panoramic photograph. The album is dispersed with appearances of various sections of the Great Wall, as well as traditional pagodas, and carved embellishments which adorn the edifices. Other views include a bell tower standing beyond an ornate bridge with pillared edges, "Tartar Walls'. General Thomas Holcomb (then Colonel ) is seen in this album , who would later become Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, and then serve as Minister to South Africa. Images of the regiment show, among other things, a cavalry on horseback, marching practices and firing drills, some of which are taking place beside Hatamen Gate (later Chongwenmen Gate), which would be torn down forty years later for urban development. He also includes for prosperity, the setting for a Christmas dinner. The album appears to span more than one year, the Christmas card dating to 1927, and the photograph of Holcomb naming him Colonel, the rank which he was granted on 22 December 1928. During this period of unrest and civil war in China, the American Asiatic Fleet kept warships off the China coast, holding marines units onboard, ready to respond to anti-foreign violence on the mainland. Small detachments of marines, such as the one pictured here, were in and out of China on numerous occasions. In February 1927, Cantonese troops under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek threatened the International Settlement in Shanghai. It was a time of riots, panic and disruption of trade. Northern warlords and southern revolutionaries were fighting, as were the Kuomintang and the Communists, and the opposing left and right wings of the National moveme... read more

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