Amoy (Xiamen), Fukien province, China: foundling children outside a foundling hospital. Photograph by John Thomson, ca. 1870.

  • Thomson, J. (John), 1837-1921.
Date:
1870
Reference:
19738i
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About this work

Description

Ten children sitting outside a lean-to building with straw walls. a woman standing in the doorway on the right hand side. In the 19th century, as result of extreme poverty and war, female infanticide was particularly high in Amoy. A local merchant set up a foundling hospital to care for unwanted children. Often the locals sold their girls to the hospital for as little as five pence, whereas a boy might fetch as much as three pounds. Anyone wishing to adopt a child, however, could go to the hospital and be given one free of charge, provided he could show he was perfectly respectable

Publication/Creation

1870

Physical description

1 photograph : glass photonegative, wet collodion : stereograph

Lettering

Mission school, Amoy, China Bears Thomson's negative number: "740"

Notes

This is one of a collection of original glass negatives made by John Thomson. The negatives, made between 1868 and 1872, were purchased from Thomson by Sir Henry Wellcome in 1921

References note

China through the lens of John Thomson, 1868-1872, Beijing: Beijing World Art Museum, 2009, p. 104 (reproduced)

Reference

Wellcome Collection 19738i

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