CHINA THROUGH WESTERN EYES
Manuscript Records of Traders, Travellers, Missionaries & Diplomats, 1792-1942

Part 1: Sources from the William R Perkins Library, Duke University

This project offers the diaries, journals, letters, photographs and scrapbooks of a host of businessmen, tourists, scholars, missionaries, doctors, journalists and diplomats from the first British mission to China in 1792-1794 through to the mid 20th century.   All are in English and they are an ideal group of sources for student project work.

Part 1 covers six individual collections of papers from Duke University.  These are:

• Correspondence, 1844-1855, of John Backhouse, successively chief clerk at Britain's new consulate in Canton, 1844-1855, and Vice Consul in Amoy.
• Diaries and Letters of J J Bandinel and family, 1763-1940, including descriptions of the Sino-Japanese War, 1894-95, the Boxer Rebellion, 1900, and the Russo-Japanese War, 1904.
• Papers of Sir John Bowring, British Consul and diplomat in China, 1850-57.
• Dispatches of Sir Frederick Bruce, British Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong, 1844-64, and principal secretary of Lord Elgin's mission to China, 1857-58.
• Scrapbook of Arthur Danyell, Britsih soldier in Peking, 1860.
• Correspondence, 1837-1945, of the Fairbank family.  these are the letters of a remarkable American missionary family active in China and India.