Between the Covers

Hardcover. Quarto. Measuring 9" x 11" Thin basket weave design over stiff paper boards. Contains 125 color photographs measuring 3½" x 4½," with very few captions. Slight waviness on the boards and edgewear thus very good with near fine photographs.

A photo album kept by a woman traveling in China for about nine months between January and September 1980. While there are almost no captions, the verso of most of the photos have a month and day written on them. The photos are of the usual tourist sights around Beijing including the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. These photos show a middle-aged woman with blonde hair posing by the landmarks with other members of a tour group as well as with Chinese people. Also included in the album are two newspaper clippings about New York Mayor Koch’s trip to China in 1980; whether there is any connection to this trip is unclear. She also photographed the local people, one of these photos shows a woman with a megaphone in Tiananmen Square who later poses with the compiler of the album. Other photos show children playing, people in a market, Chinese officials in uniform, and numerous people on bicycles (the bicycles in Beijing so impressed Mayor Koch that he implemented bike lanes in New York upon returning from his trip). The group also visited the waterways of the area and photographed numerous ships, some with beautiful decorative sails. Additionally there are photos of the group trying local cuisine and a chef at a restaurant they frequented. Many of the billboards and advertisements photographed are in Chinese with one translated which reads: “the just struggles of the people of all countries support each other.”

An interesting collection of travel photography from a woman’s nine month trip to China.

Item #403688