Sidney D. Gamble Photographs Collection

Over 5,000 photographs, primarily of China, 1908-1932. More »

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Untitled lantern slide RL_10074_LS_0141
View the highlight item: Opium burning, Pipes
Opium burning, Pipes gamble_285A_1630
View the highlight item: Needle Pagoda
Needle Pagoda gamble_138A_776
View the highlight item: Grave Attendant
Grave Attendant gamble_054B_0583
View the highlight item: Untitled lantern slide
Untitled lantern slide RL_10074_LS_0040

About the Digital Collection »

Sidney D. Gamble (1890-1968), an avid amateur photographer, began taking pictures in China during his first trip to the country with his family in 1908. He returned three more times between 1917 to 1932 and continued photographing the daily life of Chinese citizens. A sociologist and renowned China scholar, he traveled throughout the country to collect data for social-economic surveys and to photograph urban and rural life, public events, architecture, religious statuary, and the countryside. Gamble used a few of the photographs from his extensive collection in his scholarly publications (https://guides.library.duke.edu/Gamblephotos/research) and in slide lectures, the majority of images were never published or exhibited during his lifetime.

西德尼∙D∙甘博(1890年-1968年)是位醉心摄影艺术的业余摄影家。1908年甘博随父母第一次来到中国,拍摄有关这个国家的照片。随后在1917年到1932年间,他三次重返中国,拍摄了中国老百姓日常生活的大量照片。甘博是出名的社会学家和中国研究专家,他到过中国城乡的许多地方,收集有关社会经济生活的资料,并拍摄了大量的照片,反应了各地的日常和公共生活,建筑样式和宗教雕塑,以及田野风光。甘博拍摄的这些照片仅有及少量刊登在他自己的基本学术专著里。他在各地讲学时,也曾将一些照片制作成幻灯片向听众们展示。然而甘博生前,他拍摄的照片,绝大多数从未发表或者展出过。

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Source Collection

This digital collection comprises selected materials from the following archival collection at David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library:

Sidney D. Gamble photographs 1906-2007

Collection #RL.10074 | 15 Linear Feet (Approximately 11,250 items)

ABSTRACT
The Sidney D. Gamble collection consists primarily of contact sheets, hand-colored glass slides, 35mm duplicate slides, contact prints, negatives, and other photographic formats documenting Gamble's four visits to China from 1908 to 1932. In total, there are over 5,000 unique images in the collection depicting urban and rural life, economic conditions, public events, agriculture, religious statuary, architecture, and the countryside. In addition to photographs of China, the collection contains a handful of images captured by Gamble from Japan and Korea and images captured by David Gamble in the western United States, circa 1906. Also included are artifacts, audiovisual materials, including moving images captured by Gamble in China from 1926 to 1933, scrapbooks, a small selection of Gamble's personal papers, and records of the Sidney D. Gamble Foundation for China Studies, which relate to the exhibition of Gamble's photographs in China and the United States, 1980s-2000s. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.

Collection Guide »


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