"Asia through a lens": early British Colonial Office photos released online
(Great Britain) Asia through a lens: early Colonial Office photos released online
Source: the National Archives of Great Britain. Text reproduced in full from announcement on website: http://ht.ly/dZWvA
Like many people, I have certain thoughts about the context & content of photographs made within colonial contexts, but my personal opinions about education & information access mean that I support preservation and access (information=power, etc.). My experiences as a user and employee of archives have only strengthened my opinions.
Please note: these photos are part of a Flickr group and there is an opportunity to help tag the images, thereby improving incomplete or inaccurate information about a person, place or activity depicted in a photograph.
Information for the photo at right:
Description: Burmese boxing
Location: Burma
Date: 1903
Link
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26 September 2012
The National Archives has put hundreds of early photographs of Asia online as part of our Asia through a lens project.
The images from the Colonial Office’s Photographic Collection date back to the middle of the 19th century and include pictures of buildings, people and places.
The photographs are a vivid reminder of the dramatic changes which have turned Hong Kong from an island of several thousand people to a modern metropolis and home to more than 7 million people. On this day in 1984, China and Britain finalised an agreement to hand control of Hong Kong to China, ending more than 150 years of UK rule.
In addition to the images of Hong Kong and China, the collection includes black and white photographs of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Sri Lanka among others.
The photographs have been uploaded to the photo-sharing website Flickr so that you can tag and contribute comments and suggestions to help improve the descriptions.
Earlier this year, photographs of the Americas released on Flickr attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors in the first few days. In 2011, The National Archives’ Africa through a lens project resulted in more than a thousand additional user-generated descriptions.
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