Author Archives: Andrew Hillier

‘A Darkly Mysterious Instrument’: Through China with John Thomson

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Andrew Hillier

Dr Andrew Hillier discusses the China photographs of John Thomson (1837-1921) in the light of a recent exhibition of his work at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS. One of two hundred images published in John Thomson’s Illustrations of China and its … Continue reading →

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‘With a Camera in Yunnan’: the Ethnographic Expeditions of Fred W. Carey, RGS #2

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Andrew Hillier

PART 2 – COLLECTING AND DISPLAY In this second blog, Dr Andrew Hillier explores how the International Exhibition in Paris (1900) provided this young Customs man with the opportunity to collect local costumes in Yunnan but how their acquisition and … Continue reading →

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‘With a Camera in Yunnan’: the Ethnographic Expeditions of Frederic W. Carey, RGS #1

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Andrew Hillier

Drawing on a collection of photographs taken in Yunnan at the turn of the twentieth century, in this, the first of two blogs, Dr Andrew Hillier discusses what these images tell us about ‘the imperial gaze’ and the mind-set of … Continue reading →

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Regimental Cartes de Visite

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Andrew Hillier

Following the copying of the Royal Hampshire Museum’s collection of China- related photographs by the Historical Photographs of China project, Dr Andrew Hillier shows how these can reveal the personal aspects of a regiment on campaign in empire.   First … Continue reading →

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Andrew Hillier on Images of War and Regimental Memory

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Andrew Hillier

Following a recent visit to the Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum in Winchester, Dr Andrew Hillier discusses the rich resources that are available in such museums and their importance to the study of imperial history. There are well over one hundred … Continue reading →

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The Kodak comes to Peking

Posted on January 26, 2017 by Andrew Hillier

Dr Andrew Hillier has been looking at the unpublished letters of a British Student Interpreter, later Consul, Walter Clennell. The correspondence highlights the importance of photography to Legation life in Beijing in the late 1880s. Andrew recently completed his PhD at the University … Continue reading →

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Andrew Hillier reflects on Three Brothers in China: Visualising Family in Empire

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Andrew Hillier

Having just completed his PhD at Bristol, ‘Three Brothers in China: A Study of Family in Empire’, Andrew Hillier is now working on developing it  into a book. On 12 May 1846, Eliza Medhurst set off by boat from her family … Continue reading →

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