Augustine Heard & Co., Shanghai
1865
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
24.4 × 32.8 cm (9 5/8 × 12 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Cynthia Hazen Polsky Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.583 (89a)
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling treaty port of 1860s Shanghai with John Thomson's *Augustine Heard & Co Shanghai* (1865), an evocative albumen silver print capturing the facade of a prominent American trading house. Thomson, a Scottish photographer and pioneering chronicler of Asia, documented the city's rapid transformation during the Opium Wars' aftermath, when foreign firms like Augustine Heard & Co.—established in 1858—dominated silk, tea, and opium trade from elegant waterfront offices along the Bund. This 24.4 × 32.8 cm photograph exemplifies Thomson's documentary style, blending sharp architect...
About the Artist
John Thomson · 1837–1921
John Thomson (1837–1921), a pioneering Scottish photographer, was born on 14 June 1837 in Edinburgh as the eighth of nine children to William Thomson, a tobacco spinner and trader, and Isabella Newlands.) After schooling in the early 1850s, he apprenticed with a local optical and scientific instrument manufacturer, where he mastered the principles of photography, completing his training around 185...