Shanghai River
1865
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
19.6 × 32.3 cm (7 11/16 × 12 11/16 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 (92b)
Art Historical Context
In 1865, Scottish photographer John Thomson captured *Shanghai River*, a panoramic albumen silver print that offers a vivid glimpse into mid-19th-century China. Thomson, one of the earliest Western photographers to extensively document Asia, traveled to Shanghai—a booming treaty port opened to international trade after the Opium. This image likely depicts the dynamic Huangpu River waterfront, alive with junks, merchants, and the fusion of traditional Chinese life and emerging colonial influences, providing invaluable historical insight into a pivotal era of globalization. The medium, an album...
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...