China and Its People
John Thomson
1873
Medium
Collotypes (96 plates; 218 photographs in all four volumes) and text, volume two of four
Dimensions
Page: 47 × 35 cm (18 9/16 × 13 13/16 in.); Covers: 48.2 × 36 × 2.5 cm (19 × 14 3/16 × 1 in.)
Classification
collotype
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
36419
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...