Island Pagoda. Carbon print from Foochow and the River Min (1873),
From 1870 to 1871, Scottish-born photographer John Thomson traveled 160 miles up the River Min to document the area in and around the city of Fuzhou (Foochow), one of the most picturesque regions in China.
John Thomson gathered eighty photographs from this voyage into an album titled Foochow and the River Min which was sold by advance subscription to the foreign residents of Fuzhou — tea planters, merchants, missionaries and government officials — who wanted a way to share their experiences with friends and family back home.
Of the 46 copies originally published, fewer than 10 survive today.
John Thomson Photography,
© Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Ken Sawyer.











