Grose Collection: Sino-Burmese Boundary Commission and other views. Photographer(s):...

Brown cloth post-bound 'Luxor' photograph album measuring 265 x 300 mm, with title 'Photographs' stamped in gold on front cover. Prints are mounted three or four to a page, with reference code identifying negative number. This reference code consists of a letter of the alphabet for each volume of negatives, and a number for each negative within the volumes. Captions for each photograph can be found both with the list in each negative album, and in two notebooks which duplicate this information. The collection also contained the original nitrate negatives: these have been duplicated onto safety film and the originals destroyed. The original arrangement of twenty books of negatives (coded A-T) has been broken up into a more convenient system which follows and corresponds with the new numbering of the albums themselves: thus the negative number for Photo 19/1 (50) is now ON 19/1 (50) (where ON = Original Negative). The second half of the album documents the work of the League of Nations Commission to delimit the Sino-Burmese frontier in 1935–36. Sir John Clague was the Chief British Commissioner and his papers (Mss Eur E252) contain a good deal of background information on the work, as well as correspondence with Grose. These would repay investigation, but have not yet been examined in connection with Grose's photographs. A broad and very selective breakdown of the contents includes the following subjects: European group on Pangkom to Lu-tang road (print 2); Nam Ting/Salween confluence from Lu-tang (prints 3–4); Lu-tang camp from north (print 7); ploughed field at Lu-tang (print 8); entrance to panglong Valley (print 17); column nearing Panglong (print 18); Panglong city (prints 19–20); Panglong Bazaar and gate (prints 22–24); mountain battery (print 25); Namhu ferry (prints 28–29); breakfast on Kunlong road (print 30); road 'stairs' (print 32); Kokang Myosa and guard (print 33); mules on road 'stairs' at road head (print 34); J. Clague at Lashio, December 1934, and other European portraits (prints 35–42); Was tribals with car at Mong Hpet and other locations (44, 47–49); J. Clague, 3 Feb 1935 (print 50); Clague and Grose (print 51); Namlika Bridge, Manli, 1935 (print 58); bullock drawn petrol tanker, Lashio (prints 59–60); Taoist priest, Lashio (print 61); kiln and potter at work, Hona, Mong Kung district (prints 63–65); ploughing paddy (prints 66–69); work of the League of Nations Sino-Burmese Boundary Commission, 1935–36 (prints 72–156), including views of boundary commission camps, surveyors at work, portraits of participants, military escorts, parties on the march, etc.

Unrestricted. Appointment Required to view these records. Please consult Asian and African Studies Print Room staff.