Thursday, January 03, 2008

Way Cool Taiwan 1930s Image Collection

Photographer extraordinaire Craig Ferguson flipped me this link to the Gerald Warner Taiwan Image Collection at Lafayette College. The collection consists of images of Taiwan taken between 1937 and 1941.

Totaling 340 photographs and postcards gathered by Warner between August 26, 1937 and March 8, 1941, these images provide a snapshot of Taiwan's hybrid culture of Chinese, Taiwanese, Austronesian, and Japanese influences. The subjects represented are wide-ranging, including clothing, arboriculture, urban structures, agriculture, religious rituals, topography, highways, parks, and more. These digitized images have been researched and annotated to serve as a web-based encyclopedia of colonial Taiwan's material culture.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice set of postcards and excellent research into the background of the images! Thanks for the info!

Anonymous said...

As a kid growing up in Taiwan, I was excited to read stories about Taiwan, something we didn't get too often for all my life in Taiwan.

The Chinese government-in-exile deliberately hided/destroyed things Taiwan like history started in 1949.

Thank you very much for posting this story.

Anonymous said...

Great find! Browsing this should keep me occupied for a little while!

Anonymous said...

I really enjoy the older photos of Taiwan. Thanks to Craig and you for getting it out there.