Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Charles Leander Weed Photographs of Japan

Summary

Collection ID:
FSA.A2002.04
Creators:
Weed, Charles Leander, 1824-1903
Dates:
circa 1866
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
1 Print
albumen
image 40 x 52 cm., mounted 56 x 70 cm.
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists of two photographic prints: I. One sepia monochrome albumen print taken from a wet collodion glass plate negative, 40 x 52 cm., by Charles Leander Weed, circa 1866. Printed caption on mount reads "View Near Yokohama 19." Printed text on the reverse identifies the publisher, Thomas Houseworth, 317-319 Montgomery St., San Francisco. The reverse also includes a reproduction of a medal won by Thomas Houseworth at the Paris International Exhibition 1867 for the "finest photographs of scenery of the Pacific Coast." Image depicts a view of the landscape near Yokohama, Japan.
Scope and Contents
II. One sepia monochrome albumen print taken from a wet collodion glass plate negative, by Charles Leander Weed, circa 1866. Printed caption on mount reads "Fishing Village on Mississippi Bay -- Near Yokohama 18". Printed text on the reverse identifies the publisher, Thomas Houseworth, 317-319 Montgomery St., San Francisco. The reverse also includes a reproduction of a medal won by Thomas Houseworth at the Paris International Exhibition 1867 for the "finest photographs of scenery of the Pacific Coast." The photograph depicts a road running along white cliffs next to a fishing village on Mississippi Bay (Negishi Bay), near Yokohama, Japan.

Arrangement

Arrangement
One flat box.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
The American photographer Charles Leander Weed became well-known for his photographs of California, especially his spectacular views of Yosemite. Weed spent some time in the early 1860s in Hong Kong, where he established a studio with the Chinese name Wit Ying-Seung. When this proved unsuccessful, he traveled in Asia, then returned to California. In 1866-1867, he traveled again to Japan and China, where he made mammoth-plate landscapes that were issued as a series entitled "Oriental Scenery" by the publisher Thomas Houseworth. This mammoth-plate albumen print shows a landscape view near Yokohama, which was the base of foreign trade in Japan after Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853. This mammoth-plate albumen print shows the coastline of Negishi Bay, located south of Yokohama Bay. Located just over one mile due south of Yokohama, across a narrow peninsula, Negishi Bay was known to the foreign residents of Yokohama in the 1860s by its American designation, Mississippi Bay, a nomenclature that was based on the name of one of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's naval vessels. This photograph was taken from a vantage point along the coastal road about two miles southwest of Yokohama, facing in the direction of the city and the more distant capital city, Edo. This site was well within the boundaries established by the Ansei treaties of 1858 for travel by foreigners without special permits.

Administration

Custodial History
Purchase View of Yokohama, 2002.
Custodial History
Purchase, Fishing Village on Mississippi Bay, 2001.

Digital Content


Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Preferred Citation
Charles Leander Weed Photographs of Japan. FSA.A2002.04. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

More Information

Local Numbers

Local Numbers
FSA A2002.04


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Bays -- Japan Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Japan Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Yokohama-shi (Japan) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mississippi Bay Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Albumen prints Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Japan -- Kanagawa prefecture -- Yokohama Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
National Museum of Asian Art Archives
Washington, D.C. 20013
AVRreference@si.edu