A Tourist's Album of Japan
Collection Overview
Katherine Wolcott and her uncle, Robert Hull Fleming, compiled this photo album on their visit to Japan in 1909. Part of a larger Asian trip, the two stopped in Japan and collected photos, postcards, bookmarks, and other materials. Fleming was a...
Show moreKatherine Wolcott and her uncle, Robert Hull Fleming, compiled this photo album on their visit to Japan in 1909. Part of a larger Asian trip, the two stopped in Japan and collected photos, postcards, bookmarks, and other materials. Fleming was a graduate of the University of Vermont, and in 1929 Katherine Wolcott helped to fund the construction of the Robert Hull Fleming Museum in memory of her late uncle. This album, a memento from their trip, was part of Wolcott’s own collection.
There are nearly 40 leaves of collected photographs and postcards, numbering two to three per album page. The pictures range in content, some depicting staged photos of daily life while others portray landscapes and countryside. The album itself measures approximately 11 x 14 x 4 inches and is currently housed at the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont.
Wolcott’s album captures a unique view of Japan at the brink of burgeoning Western influence. After defeating the Russians in the Russo Japanese War (1904-05), Japan began to cement itself as a global power, and its efforts to modernize began to attract Westerners. The images in this album depict a Japan with a strong national heritage and cultural appreciation as well as a newfound embrace of modernization and technology.
Most of the pictures in the album sold commercially as a form of postcard. In the early 1900s, the Japanese populace began consuming millions of these types of commercially produced picture postcards. Eventually, the medium became so popular that it started to replace the more traditional wood block print. The citizenry sought pictures of their budding nation, wanting to hold a still image of the rapidly modernizing and changing countryside.
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Additional Content
Pages
- Title
- Album of Japanese Photographs
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
Katherine Wolcott and her uncle, Robert Hull Fleming, compiled this photo album on their visit to Japan in 1909. Part of a larger Asian trip, the two stopped in Japan and collected photos, postcards, bookmarks, and other materials. Fleming was a graduate of the University of Vermont, and in 1929...
Show moreKatherine Wolcott and her uncle, Robert Hull Fleming, compiled this photo album on their visit to Japan in 1909. Part of a larger Asian trip, the two stopped in Japan and collected photos, postcards, bookmarks, and other materials. Fleming was a graduate of the University of Vermont, and in 1929 Katherine Wolcott helped to fund the construction of the Robert Hull Fleming Museum in memory of her late uncle. This album, a memento from their trip, was part of Wolcott’s own collection.
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- Title
- Bookmark from Kasuga Shrine in Nara
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Bridge spanning a large river in rural Japan
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Bridge spanning a slow moving river
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- A bridge spanning a small river in the Japanese countryside
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Buddhist temple guardian statue
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
These statues were though to ward off evil spirits and ensure the safety of the temple. In the very forefront of the picture you can see a man kneeling before the statue and box in front of it.
- Title
- A charm to protect against fire
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
The charm was created to protect the bearer from fire. On the marker, it says Jadaiji temple, which may be the Jindaiji temple in Tokyo.
- Title
- Cherry blossom festival in full swing
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Doctor attending to a sick woman
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- An elderly man getting his hair styled
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
It looks as if the man is getting his hair pulled back into the traditional Samurai hairstyle of the top knot (Chonmage).
- Title
- Elderly man with a bow
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
An elderly man is posing in a clan kimono with a "Yumi" (Bow) in his left hand. The bareness of his left arm suggests that the man is a practitioner of "Kyudo" (Japanese Zen Archery).
- Title
- Employees outside a tea house
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- The entrance to a rural shrine
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Entrance to a rural shrine
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Fan crafter with a customer
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
There are two main types of fans in this man's shop. The folding fan - known as the "Sensu," and the hand fan - known as the "Uchiwa."
- Title
- Farmer traveling on a country road
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Farmers collecting their harvest
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
It appears the people in this picture are all part of the same family. In the picture you can see three generations of the family working together on the harvest.
- Title
- Farmers planting their crop
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Five monks posing
- Date Created
- 1909
- Title
- Five women on a bench
- Date Created
- 1909
- Description
-
Five women, dressed in elegant kimono's, sit astride a wooden bench. The picture is hand colored.