Thomas Child (photographer) facts for kids
Thomas Child (1841-1898) was an English photographer and engineer. He is famous for his amazing photos taken in China. Child took many pictures in Beijing during the 1870s and 1880s. At that time, almost no other photographers were working there. For about 20 years, he created the first full collection of photos showing the customs, buildings, and people of Beijing during the late Qing dynasty. Child loved photographing buildings, and some of his pictures are the earliest and only known photos of certain places.
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Who was Thomas Child?
Thomas Child was born in Shropshire, England, in 1841. In 1870, he was hired by Sir Robert Hart to work as a gas engineer for the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. He left England for Beijing in June 1870, bringing his camera gear with him. Child lived in Beijing until 1889.
When he arrived, Beijing did not have many foreigners. Only a few photographers had ever taken pictures in the city. Child quickly started learning Chinese. He wrote in a letter in November 1870 that he spent three hours a day with a Chinese teacher. He later became quite good at speaking the language. Even though his first job contract was for only five years, his photography kept him in China much longer.
Becoming a Photographer in China
By March 1871, Child began taking photos of Beijing's buildings. There were no photo studios in Beijing back then. Child saw that people wanted his pictures, so he spent more time photographing the city's buildings and people. He also took pictures of the areas around Beijing.
Child became very well-known as a photographer. In the late 1870s, he started taking pictures for The Far East. This magazine was published in Japan and China. It showed photos from the best photographers working in those places. Child's pictures appeared in the magazine in 1877 and 1878. In April 1878, he placed an ad offering almost 200 different "Views of Beijing and its Vicinity" for 50 cents each. Most of his original photo plates were made in the 1870s, but Child kept making and selling prints throughout the 1880s.
Child returned to England in 1889 with his family. His oldest son, Alfred, stayed in Beijing. Alfred also worked for the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and took over from his father. Child officially retired from the Customs service the next year. He bought a house in Chelsfield, Kent. He named it "Chang-an-Tang," which means "Everlasting Tranquillity Studios," as a reminder of his time in China. Thomas Child died on May 27, 1898, near his home. He had fallen from a horse-drawn carriage and hurt his head.
What did Child photograph?
Child took pictures of famous Chinese buildings. These include the Old Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the Peking Observatory, the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. He also captured street scenes that show the busy markets of Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty.
While he is mostly known for photos of buildings, Child was also a skilled portrait photographer. He took pictures of street sellers, beggars, religious leaders, and important visitors. He also created a beautiful wedding photo of a young bride and groom from a rich family.
Photos of the Old Summer Palace
One of Child's most important contributions was his photos of Yuanmingyuan, also known as the Old Summer Palace. This place is a very strong symbol of China's past. Child's pictures are some of the earliest and most important photo evidence of certain parts of this historical site. His photo of the Prince's Porch is especially important. It is the only known photo of this amazing building. Other places Child photographed, like the Xiyang Lou and the Fountain Gate, were later destroyed during the Boxer War and other fights.
Where are Child's photos today?
The Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection has the largest collection of Child's work. This includes most of his Beijing photos, his personal diaries, and the only known set of his original glass photo plates. Child's diaries "give amazing information" about his trip to China. They describe "local people, cultural and religious practices, buildings and architecture," and also "detailed descriptions of photographs."
Child's original albumen print photos are rare and do not often go up for sale. In 2006, a group of 31 of his original prints were sold at an auction. This was one of the first times Child's work was sold for a high price in modern times. His photos have also been found in albums with works by other Chinese and international photographers like Lai Afong, Felice Beato, and William Saunders. Child's photos are kept in museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Child's lasting impact
In 2015, the first modern exhibition of Child's work was held in London. It was called Qing Dynasty Peking: Thomas Child’s Photographs. This show featured over 40 of Child's photos from the Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection. Many of these had never been shown to the public before. In October 2016, the exhibition moved to New York. News groups like The New York Times, BBC, and The Atlantic praised the exhibition.
In 2020, more of Child's photos were shown at Cornell University Library. The exhibition was called Lai Fong and Thomas Child: Photographs of Late Qing Dynasty Chinese Street Life. It was "the first exhibition about 19th-century photos of street life in Chinese cities."
Unlike other foreign photographers who visited Beijing, such as Felice Beato and John Thomson, Child's work shows a deeper understanding of Beijing's places and people. This is probably because he lived there for so long. Child's photos were popular with both international and Chinese people during his lifetime. His pictures were shared all over the world. Curator Stacey Lambrow has said that "Thomas Child is not recognized enough. What he did was amazing, creating... the most complete photo collection of 19th-century Peking."
Images for kids
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Thomas Child, "Princes Porch, Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), Beijing," 1870s, albumen silver print. Source: Stephan Loewentheil Photography of China Collection
See also
- Photographs of Beijing by Thomas Child
