Travel Writings on Indochina

I've been collecting a collection of travel writings on Indochina at the fin de siècle:

Morice Docteur, 'Voyage en Cochinchine', Le Tour du monde, 30 (1875), 369-416. [Quoted in Mayer 1985]

Lemire, Charles, L'Indo-Chine. Cochinchine française, Royaume de Cambodge, Royaume d'Annam et Tonkin. Third edition (Paris: Challamel Aîné, [1877] 1884). 

 

Ferrière, Joseph, Georges Garros, Alfred Meynard and Alfred Raquez eds., L'Indo-Chine 1906 (n.p.: n.pub. 1906). [This one is published as a propaganda for the 1906 Exposition in Marseille] 

Massieu, Isabelle, Comment j'ai parcouru l'Indo-Chine: Birmanie, États Shans, Siam, Tonkin, Laos (Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1901) [work by a female traveller. A study of Isabelle Massieu can be found in Valérie Boulain, Femmes en aventure (2012)] She has published earlier versions in La Revue des deux mondes in July and August 1890. I haven't compared the two versions yet [to be done]

Boissière, Jules, L'Indo-Chine avec les Français (Paris: Louis-Michaud, n.d.). [This is a posthumous edition by the Français d'Asie group with a preface by Jean Ajalbert, probably published during the 1910s along with the republication of Boissière's fictions as a effort of eulogising him]

Ajalbert, Jean, 'L'Indochine artistique et pittoresque', La Dépêche coloniale illustrée (1918), 52-4. [This is a special volume published by the Comité d'assistance aux travailleurs indochinois, a post-war effort]

The Prince's Papers workshop on Digital Humanities and archives

I have taken up a workshop on 'A Prince's Papers: Transcribing Prince Albert's World' run by Dr. Andrew Curnew. I have always been curious about Digital Humanities. And as a aficionado of archives, I thought this workshop which uses the Royal Archive of the Windsor Castle would be a chance for me to learn more about hot DH can be used in archiving at the time of digitalising archives.

The First workshop is about creating a TEI (the Text Encoding Initiative) document using a free program Brackets. Putting the technical aspect aside, the preparatory work is about exploring the online Royal Archives Collection which includes his collection of Raphael's paintings, his involvement in the 1851 Great Exhibition, and his interests in the emerging photography. 

I am intrigued to learn more about the 1851 Exhibition as during my thesis, I have been looking a lot into the French's colonial and world exhibitions, but have little knowledge about the contemporary Anglophone world.

While bowsing the archives, I've discovered a collection involving the Secretary of the Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851, Edgar Bowring's Papers. He happens to be the youngest son of Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), the fourth governor of Hong Kong.

The name of Sir John Bowring is familiar among Thai people as he is mentioned in the national curriculum of history. He was actually the main instigator of the first Siamese-British treaty. This treaty signed in 1855 between King Mongkut (known in English as King Rama IV) and Bowring is very important in Thai history as it opens a new era of Thai modernity emerging within the context of threats from modern colonisation. This treaty, to my knowledge, is often quoted by historians of critical history as the historical moment that marked Thailand as a 'crypto colony'. One of the agreements is that Siam (the former name of Thailand) granted extraterritoriality to British citizens and subjects residing in Siam.

For the Second workshop, I chose to work on the transcription of Albert's speech for the Laying of the Foundational Stone of the National Gallery of Edinburgh in 1850. The first thing that struck me is the address of the Prince to his public as solely 'Gentlemen' (how unsurprisingly). I shared this remark with our group. Some suggested that it is because this kind of speech was usually delivered in what we commonly know as gentlemen's dinner (very homosocial indeed!).

Curious about the circumstances of his speech (whether it was delivered in this kind of dinner or in public), I've digged into it. My search in the British Newspaper Archives allowed me to find news report on the event.

I skimmed through it and find the reporter's comments at the end of the Prince's speech quite amusing

Contrary to our hypothesis, the speech was delivered at the laying of the stone's site itself (aka in public), but we were right about the destined audience. The Prince delivered it to a handful of commissioners who surrounded him (all gentlemen of course) at the ceremony. 

The reporter commented on his foreign identity as well: 'The Prince spoke without notes, and with a pronunciation in which his foreign origin could barely be detected.'

Gutenberg link to the 1862 publication of his speeches

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61205/61205-h/61205-h.htm

For the Third workshop, I chose to work on Dr. Becker, Albert's librarian who acted in his name for his collection of photography. The letter I work on is destined to the publisher Colnaghi who is to publish a photo catalogue of paintings shown in the 1857 Manchester exhibition. The prince seems outrageous by the way in which the painters and paintings were to be organised in the catalogue and demanded they be presented chronologically. Otherwise the publisher could not quote him as the patron in their printed version. It seems that his demand was taken into account as we can read his name on the printed catalogue here.

N.B. Fun fact: the first photographic catalogue in England was published for the 1851 Great Exhibition

During this workshop, we talked a lot about photographic techniques during the19th century (for example, glass plates) .

- daguerrotype

- wet collodian negative  

- the albumen print

- the ambrotype

- carbon printing from 1860s

Albert was interested in new processes of photography, particularly the 'fading' 

The Fourth session is about the Prince's Raphael collection. It's quite fascinating as this collection was ambitious as it sought for the first time to gather together every known work of Raphael, reproducing them in photographic form in order to bring out the artist's evolution. It didn't finish until some 15 years after the Prince's death in 1861.

French-language Newspapers and Journals in Indochina

While strolling through L'Indo-Chine (1906) edited by Ferrière, Garros, Meynard and Raquez, I found adverts of L'Avenir du Tonkin and Le Courrier saigonnai. They are quite interesting as reflecting the colonial-lobby objectives of these French language newspapers.

I recall having read that Jules Boissière was collaborator of L'Avenir du Tonkin, although when I went through the newspaper in the beautiful but not practical Bibliothèque Ste-Geneviève in Paris, I couldn't find his columns.

I think about Boissière because I am now reading his L'Indo-chine avec les Français, a collection of unpublished essays posthumously published probably by the effort of the circle of the Français d'Asie, spearheaded  by Albert de Pouvourville (whose name is mentioned in the advert of L'Avenir du Tonkin above) and Jean Ajalbert.

Photogravure and photomontage

While I was reading a guide of Indochina published by the Touring Club of France (this one is the 1910 version hold by the Library of Congress while the one I read is a longer version -published in 1911? - from the Bibliothèque nationale de France), I was struck by the photos used to illustrate the text in photomontage style. Some looks really uncanny, with a collage of a French woman on the photo of exotic site. Like this one,

There is mention of F. Bouché as the 'photograveur'. I then wrote to my colleague in the States who is specialist of artistic techniques in the 19th century, Rachel Skokowski.

She explained that 'photogravure' is a 19th-century photography technique that combines photography with etching (you basically transfer a photograph onto a metal plate that is then printed). The photograveur would be the person who made the prints, and is probably a different person from the one who took the original photos.

She also gives me useful links to read further: 

On photo gravure 
What is photogravure?
On photomontage and collage in the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography

I then discovered André Disdéri's 'carte mosaïque'. They are quite charming, and the Commune's one intrigues me. It is really upsetting to think about how many young people were killed during this event.

Guide aux ruines d'Angkor by J. Commaille

Published in 1912 by Gallimard  (but it might have been published earlier and the Gallica copy could be a re-editio). One of the early guidebooks for tourists of Angkor.

This guide is quoted with photos by another guidebook 'L'Indo-chine' published by the Touring-Club de France, comité de tourisme colonial in 1911 (date given in Gallica). This edition is bilingual and is part of the development of tourism in the region [to be linked with the establishment of the 'Angkor Park' by the EFEO in the same period]. This guide gives practical information as well as description of sites and monuments tourists could visit (transport, accommodation, travel time).

These guides are to be put in contrast with the exotic novel by Pierre Loti, Le Pèlerin d'Angkor published in 1912. This travelogue gives a different image of a trip to Angkor: mysterious, dangerous, difficult to accessible, in contrast to a well-organised trip by tourist companies.

Another guide which seems to be well known is Guides Madrolle. This advert I found at the end of La Dépêche coloniale illustrée, a special edition of 1918 on the Travailleurs indochinois.
N.B. In this volume, there is an excerpt of J. Boissière about the character of the Annamites (To read).

Jardin Colonial at Nogent sur Marne

Map of the Colonial Exhibition in 1907

I read an article published by La Dépêche coloniale of the 3 Juin 1909 about the Jardin colonial in Nogent sur Marne, in the east suburb of Paris. This 'Agronomical Garden' was founded in 1899, it hosted a Colonial Exhibition in 1907. The Marie de Paris (Paris Municipal) acquired it in 2003 and is now renovating the pavilions. The newspaper Le Parisien covered the story here http://www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/paris-un-pavillon-colonial-restaure-au-jardin-tropical-du-bois-de-vincennes-16-08-2019-8134371.php

1864: Foundation of the Jardin botanique et zoologique in Saigon preceded this foundation of the administrative organ in the métropole 

1902 : Foundation of the École nationale supérieure d’agriculture coloniale as an integral part of the Jardin colonial (this is to be linked to the article on 'La Ville de Saigon' in Revue indochinoise illustrée in 1893 recently read that gives details about the Botanical Gardin in Saigon including the administrative staff in charge of developing seeds and plants)

'La Ville de Saigon' in Revue indochinoise illustrée in 1893

Economic expansion is to be supported by research in new plants in the colonies. I am also thinking about the foundation of the EFEO in 1899 in Indochina. Efforts were made from different parties (not always concerted) to create and master knowledge about Indochina