MenuInventory of the Sidney D. Gamble Photographs, 1906-2007
Abstract
Sociologist, renowned China scholar, and amateur photographer Sidney D. Gamble (1890-1968) visited China four times between 1908 and 1932 to collect data for socio-economic surveys, and to photograph urban and rural life, public events, architecture, religious statuary, and the countryside.
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 relating 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.
Descriptive Summary
- Repository
- David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
- Creator
- Gamble, Sidney D. (Sidney David), 1890-1968.
- Title
- Sidney D. Gamble Photographs, 1906-2007
- Language of Material
- English, Chinese (Mandarin)
- Extent
- 15 Linear Feet, 11,250 Items
- Location
- For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Collection Overview
The collection consists primarily of a Photographic Materials series, which includes contact sheets and contact prints, hand-colored glass slides, 35mm duplicate slides, negatives, and other photographic formats documenting Sidney Gamble's four visits to China from 1908 to 1932. In total, there are over 5,000 unique images, which depict urban and rural life, economic conditions, public events, architecture, religious statuary, and the countryside. Other materials in the collection include artifacts, audiovisual materials including moving images captured by Gamble in China from 1926 to 1933, a small collection of Sidney D. Gamble's personal papers, records of the Sidney D. Gamble Foundation, and printed materials. The Sidney D. Gamble Personal Papers series includes biographical information, correspondence, scrapbooks, notebooks, and writings documenting Gamble's travels in China and his study of the country's social life and customs. The Sidney D. Gamble Foundation Records series consists of correspondence, printed materials, and reports documenting the Foundation's curation and exhibition of Gamble's photographs in the United States and China from the 1980s to the 2000s. The Printed Materials series includes mandarin character drill cards, and mandarin readers used in Chinese language schools, as well as a thesis describing the origins and evolution of the Princeton in Asia program. In addition to photographs of China, the collection contains a handful of images captured by Sidney Gamble from Japan and Korea and images captured by his father David Gamble in the western United States, circa 1906.
Administrative Information
A majority of collections are stored off site and must be requested at least 24 business hours in advance for retrieval. Contact Rubenstein Library staff before visiting. Read More »
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research.
However, collection may contain materials to which the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibilities and Privacy Rights form applies. Patrons must sign this form before using this collection.
Also, all or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. Consequently, there may be a 24-hour delay in obtaining these materials.
Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to use this collection.
Use Restrictions
The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Contents of the Collection
Browse List of Series
Collapse All
Expand AllArtifacts Series, circa 1910s-1930s
These boxes originally housed hand-colored glass slides and include an index to their former contents on the underside of the lid.
Materials are arranged by format.
Audiovisual materials include footage captured by Gamble in China, 1926-1933; audiocassettes with commentary on the Gamble photographs; CD-Rs and a DVD-R containing image files used in a 2004 exhibition; and later video productions reflecting on Gamble's life and work.
[CLOSED: Originals closed to use. No use copies are currently available. Technical Services staff need to produce use copies before contents can be accessed. Please contact Research Services staff before coming to use the collection.]
Contains footage captured by Gamble in Tientsin, 1926-1928, 1931; in Peking and Paoting, 1926-1927, 1931; and footage from Miao Feng Shan, 1926-1928, and Shanghai, 1929. The footage was transferred from 16mm film reels to VHS and depicts urban and rural life, focusing on a variety of craftsman and farmers using the tools of their trade. Of interest is footage of martial arts demonstrations, celebrations related to the Mass Education Movement, street parades, and irrigation techniques. Also included are later productions reflecting on Gamble's life and work.
[RESTRICTIONS: Originals closed to use. Some use copies available. Technical Services staff need to produce use copies before contents can be accessed. Please contact Research Services staff before coming to use the collection.]
Produced by China Institute in America and the Sidney D. Gamble Foundation for China Studies [use digital version: Pilgrimage to Miao Feng Shan or use copy UC1 in Box 3]
[Use UC2-4 in Box 3]
[No use copy. Please consult research services before coming to use this collection.]
Sponsored by the Sidney D. Gamble Foundation for China Studies, written and narrated by Wayne W. J. Xing, and produced by Pallavi Shah. [No use copy. Please consult research services before coming to use this collection.]
Contains five segments which aired on Beijing TV and CCTV. [No use copy. Please consult research services before coming to use this collection.]
Personal papers include correspondence and a letterbook documenting Gamble's travels in Asia and Russia; biographical materials; notebooks consisting of lectures notes, supply lists, letter excerpts, and account records; scrapbooks containing reviews of Gamble's Peking: A Social Survey (1921) and other articles related to his travels in China; and various writings and publications by and about Gamble.
Consists of typed form letters from Gamble describing his travels. Topics discussed include war in China, the Chinese New Year, traveling to Russia, economic conditions and communism, family, Chiang Kai-shek, and education in China. Materials are arranged by format.
Contains lists of supplies, grocery orders, and other notes related to Gamble's sojourns, notes on the history of the British labor movement and the American Federation of Labor, and notes on trips to London, Prague, and Germany. Also included is a diary, 1920 June 12-July 15, that documents a trip across the United States from New York to California.
Contains Gamble's notes on suggested programs for the Department of Sociology at Peking University; a wedding trip, 1924; the Jehol trip, 1924; and the Miao Feng Shan trip. Also included are lecture notes, research notes, lists, letter excerpts, and account records, 1924.
Contains extracts of letters to Gamble concerning his book Peking: A Social Survey, lists tracking receipt and sales of the book, and notes on lectures by Ogburn, Fosdick, Pettit, Harrison, and Carruthers.
Contains typed and handwritten notes on A Trip to Miao Feng Shan, notes on lectures given by H. Ward, and Chinese history, the Mass Education Movement, and WanPing Hsien.
Includes clippings of reviews and letters regarding the publication of Peking: A Social Survey.
Chiefly consists of clippings of newspaper articles related to Gamble's travels in China.
[Clippings photocopied and moved to Oversize Material Series, Folder 1]
[Some items removed to Oversize Material Series]
[Some items removed to Oversize Material Series]
Records consist chiefly of correspondence, printed material, reports, and photographs documenting the Foundation's curation of the Sidney D. Gamble photograph collection and sponsorship of several exhibitions of Gamble's photographs in the United States and China. Exhibitions included China Between Revolutions (1989-1993), and Turbulent Years: Sidney D. Gamble's Photographs of China (1996-2001). Materials are arranged alphabetically.
[Some items removed to Oversize Material Series]
[Some items removed to Oversize Material Series]
[Some items removed to Oversize Material Series]
[Some items removed to Oversize Material Series]
[Some items removed to Oversize Material Series]
[Some items removed to Oversize Material Series]
Photographic Material Series, 1906-1992
Photographic materials in the collection chiefly consist of several formats of the approximately 5,000 images that Gamble captured during his four sojourns in China (1908, 1917-1919, 1924-1927, and 1931-1932) and visits to other locales including Korea, Japan, Russia, Hawaii, and San Francisco. The images document urban and rural life, public events, architecture, religious statuary, and the countryside. Gamble used the images to illustrate scholarly publications and in slide lectures. Formats include contact sheets, hand-colored glass slides, duplicate slides (35mm), copy prints, a photograph album (120 contact prints), and nitrate negatives. Also included are print and card indexes to the photographs, and the original negative sleeves (with annotations).
NOTE: The same numbering scheme is applied to contact sheets, negatives, hand-colored glass slides, and duplicate slides in the collection. Identification numbers typically include the roll number and the exposure number (e.g. 54/294), although some materials only bear the exposure number.
The card index provides access to images by location, name, and subject.
Contact sheets are arranged by roll and exposure number
Contact sheets were created by the donor in the 1980s from the original nitrate negatives to serve as a reference tool for the collection. There are typically six images per contact sheet with brief descriptions of each image including the location and subject matter.
Large (8x10) and small (2x4) photographic prints made for various publications and exhibitions of Gamble's work.
Multiple sets of approximately 500 35mm duplicate slides. Each set consists of 13 small individually labeled slide cases. The 35mm slides are duplicates of selected hand-colored glass slides and black and white negatives in the collection. Also included are three small slide cases labeled test extras, containing slides of artwork and other scenes unrelated to the bulk of the collection.
Duplicate slides are arranged numerically by exposure number. Labels on each case note the exposures in that case. Sets are distinguished by a colored dot marked on each box in that set.
Approximately 600 glass slides, mostly depicting Gamble's travels in China. The bulk of the slides are hand-colored versions of black-and-white images found elsewhere in the collection, but there are also slides featuring charts and graphs that Gamble used in his lectures and presentations on China.
Approximately 50 glass slides belonging to David Gamble, mostly depicting landscapes and other scenes in the Western United States such as: Old Faithful Geyser, the Grand Canyon, bears, and waterfalls. Also included are portraits of unidentified women.
Microfilm of the Sidney D. Gamble Photographs, 1911-1919, held at Princeton University.
Contains 120 prints, most likely taken during Gamble's 1908 sojourn to China.
Includes mandarin character drill cards and Mandarin Readers used in the North China Union Language School, and a 1996 senior thesis on the origins and evolution of the Princeton in Asia program.
A senior thesis by Andrea Yun-Woei Au, Department of History, Princeton University, 1996.
Historical Note
Sociologist, renowned China scholar, and amateur photographer Sidney D. Gamble (1890-1968) visited China four times between 1908 and 1932 to collect data for socio-economic surveys and to photograph urban and rural life, public events, architecture, religious statuary, and the countryside. Gamble published four influential studies of Chinese life: Peking: A Social Survey, 1921; How Chinese Families Live in Peiping, 1933; Ting Hsien: A North China Rural Community, 1954; and North China Villages: Social, Political, and Economic Activities Before 1933, 1963.
Chronology List
| Date | Event(s) |
|---|---|
| 1890 | Born on July 12 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to David Berry and Mary Huggins Gamble; grandson of James Gamble, who, with William Proctor, founded Proctor & Gamble in 1837. |
| 1896-1907 | Attended Miss Sattler's School and University School on Cincinnati, and Thacher School in Ojai, California. |
| 1908 | First sojourn in China. Traveled with parents to Hangzhou by way of Honolulu, Japan, and Korea. |
| 1912 | Graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Literature degree; elected to Phi Beta Kappa. |
| 1913-1914 | Served as secretary and treasurer of Escondido Land and Town Company, San Diego, California. |
| 1914-1916 | Worked part-time for the California State Commission on Immigration and Housing while studying for a Master of Arts degree in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Awarded fellowship in 1915 which involved a six-month residence at the Preston School of Industry in Ione, California. |
| 1916-1917 | Taught in the economics department, University of California at Berkeley. |
| 1916-1917 | Arrived in China in May for second sojourn. Together with Robert Fitch and J.H. Arthur, traveled up the Yangzi River, from Zheijiang province deep into Sichuan province, taking numerous photographs. |
| 1918 Spring | Visited flood relief camps in Tianjin and traveled to Beijing. Traveled with G. Sherwood Eddy to Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Hong Kong, and Manila. Joined the international staff of the YMCA in Beijing and became a member of Princeton University Center in China (Princeton Court). |
| 1918 Summer | Visited Beidaihe and Bei Niu Ding (Hebei). |
| 1918 Fall | Conducted field-work for a social survey of Beijing with John Stewart Burgess while teaching elementary economics and the principles of philanthropic and institutional work at Yenching University. |
| 1919 Spring | Visited Baoding and Kaifeng during Spring Festival, and Taishan, Jinan, and Qufu in March. |
| 1919 Summer | Worked on survey materials at Beidaihe. |
| 1919 Fall | Traveled to Hangzhou. |
| 1919 Winter | Returned to Pasadena, California, in December, with negatives of some 2,500 photographs taken during second sojourn. |
| 1921 | Published first book, Peking: A Social Survey, with the assistance of J. Stewart Burgess. Traveled as member of a commission headed by G. Sherwood Eddy to study the labor movement in England and relief work in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. |
| 1922-1923 | Prepared for third sojourn in China at New York Union Theological Seminary, New York School of Social Work, and Columbia University. |
| 1924 Spring | Married Elizabeth Pritchard Lowe, daughter of Dr. Walter I. Lowe and Catherine Caskey Lowe of Hamilton, New York, on January 18. Arrived in Beijing on March 13 to resume post as secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA. Began studying Chinese at the North China Union Language School and conducting socio-economic surveys of Chinese family life. First trip to Miao Feng Shan in April, a popular pilgrimage site northwest of Beijing. |
| 1924 Fall | Traveled to Chengde, Lanxian, Tangshan, And Tianjin. |
| 1925 Spring | Traveled to Shanghai in January to meet a commission on social and economic research, and returned to Beijing by way of Qinhuangdao and Tianjin. Second trip to Miao Feng Shan with Arthur W. Hummel, Franklin C.H. Lee, and L. Carrington Goodrich in April. |
| 1925 Fall | Taught at Yenching University, Union Medical College, and the American Women's College Club. |
| 1925 Summer | Traveled to Japan to join Dr. and Mrs. Lowe, and accompanied them to Beijing, Beidaihe, and Shanhaiguan. |
| 1926 Spring | Conducted research on prices, wages, and the standard of living in Beijing. Gamble's first child born on March 21st. |
| 1926 Fall | Traveled for three weeks in the Soviet Union with G. Sherwood Eddy and 25 Americans, including brother Dr. Clarence Gamble. |
| 1926 Winter | Accompanied wife and daughter back to the United States on November 11, and stayed in Pasadena until early 1927. |
| 1927 Spring | Sailed for China on February 26, arriving in Shanghai on March 25; then traveled to Beijing by way of Qingdao and Tianjin. Took film footage of pilgrimage activities on a third trip to Miao Feng Shan in April. |
| 1927 Fall | Visited Dingxian where the National Association for the Mass Education Movement, led by Dr. James Yen, was based. |
| 1927 Winter | Returned to the United States. |
| 1929 | Elected President of Princeton-Yenching Foundation. |
| 1931 Summer | Returned to China for fourth and last sojourn, following a second trip to the Soviet Union. Became involved in the administration of Yenching University. |
| 1931 Fall | Moved Dingxian to serve as research secretary of the National Association for the Mass Education Movement, and carried out surveys of village life in northern China. |
| 1932 Spring | Departed Shanghai for the United States on February 23. |
| 1933 | Published How Chinese Families Live in Peiping. |
| 1934-1968 | Continued to publish books and articles on aspects of Chinese village and family life. Elected member of the National Council of the YMCA. Became Treasurer, Vice Chairman, Chairman, and President Emeritus of Church World Service; Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation; President and Honorary Chairman of Princeton-in-Asia. |
| 1968 | Died in New York on March 29 at the age of 78, survived by his widow and four children; Catherine, Louise, David, and Anne. |
Taken from Sidney Gamble's China Revisited (2004).
In 1984, Sidney Gamble's daughter, Catherine Gamble Curran, discovered in the attic of the family home 5,000 black and white negatives, 600 hand-colored glass slides, and 21 rolls of 16mm film documenting her father's travels in China. In 1986, Curran helped found the Sidney D. Gamble Foundation for China Studies to preserve, catalog, reproduce, and publicly exhibit the extensive collection of photographs and hand-colored slides taken by Sidney Gamble in China. The foundation has sponsored several exhibitions of Gamble's photography including Turbulent Years: Sidney D. Gamble's Photographs of China, a traveling exhibition in China, and China Between Revolutions, an exhibition at several universities and art museums throughout the United States. The foundation also coordinated publication of Sidney D. Gamble's China, 1917-1932: Photographs of the Land and its People (1988), China Between Revolutions: Photographs by Sidney D. Gamble, 1917-1927 (1989), and Sidney Gamble's China Revisited: Photographs by Sidney D. Gamble from 1917 to 1931 (2004).
Subject Headings
- Gamble, Sidney D. (Sidney David), 1890-1968.
- China--Economic conditions--1912-1949.
- China--History--Republic, 1912-1949--Pictorial works.
- China--Social conditions--1912-1949.
- Japan--History--1912-1945--Pictorial works.
- Korea--History--20th century--Pictorial works.
- Photography--China.
- Documentary photography--China.
- Sociologists--United States.
- Sidney D. Gamble Foundation for China Studies.
- Color slides.
- Contact sheets.
- Photographs.
- Moving images.
- Negatives.
- Videocassettes.
- Archive of Documentary Arts (Duke University)
Related Material
- Sidney D. Gamble Photographs, 1911-1919 (Princeton University)
- China Photographs, 1920s (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library)
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Sidney D. Gamble Photographs, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
Provenance
The Sidney D. Gamble Photographs were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a gift from Catherine Gamble Curran of the Sidney D. Gamble Foundation for China Studies in October 2006.
Processing Information
Processed by Marlyse H. MacDonald and Noah Huffman, June 2008
Encoded by Noah Huffman, March 2009
Accessions 2006-0104, 2006-0091, 2007-0174, 2008-0017, 2008-0062, and 2008-0068 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid.
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory: DACS, EAD, NCEAD guidelines, and our local Style Guide.
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.