Tianjin (Tientsin), China: interior ruins of the Chapel of the Sisters of Charity after the Tianjin Massacre. Photograph by John Thomson, 1871.

  • Thomson, J. (John), 1837-1921.
Date:
1871
Reference:
19306i
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About this work

Description

Interior of a ruined church of European design, looking east, a man standing against a buttress toward the apse. A bright patch of sunlight at the extreme lower right of the frame. The building was the Chapel of the Sisters of Charity (there are several different orders of nuns having this name). The Sisters first arrived in Tianjin in 1862 to perform charitable works. In 1870 in response to a cholera epidemic nearby, they received into the convent many sick children. A large number of these children died there, and due to a shortage of coffins, two or three were frequently buried together. This caused public outcry in the city. On 21 June 1870, angry Chinese burned down many foreign mission stations, and massacred 21 foreigners in Tianjin, including ten nuns of the Sisters of Charity. The incident became known as the Tianjin Massacre. This photograph was taken not long after the event

Publication/Creation

1871.

Physical description

1 photograph : glass photonegative, wet collodion ; glass approximately 20.5 x 25.5 cm (8 x 10 in.)

Lettering

Ruins of Sisters of Mercy chapel, Tientsin, China. This is where the Sisters were done to death in 1870 Bears Thomson's negative number: "525"

References note

China through the lens of John Thomson, 1868-1872, Beijing: Beijing World Art Museum, 2009, p. 77 (reproduced)

Notes

This is one of a collection of original glass negatives made by John Thomson. The negatives, made between 1868 and 1872, were purchased from Thomson by Sir Henry Wellcome in 1921

Reference

Wellcome Collection 19306i

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