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By the military emblem on the breast-plate, the annexed figure of a stage player must be intended to represent a great general or some military hero famous in the annals of China. Noisy music and extravagant gestures are the characteristic features of the Chinese stage.
559 visits
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The military of China differs, as every thing else differs, from that of all other nations, in the nature of its establishment, its occupation, and its dress. They have two distinct armies, if they may be so called; the one composed entirely of Tartars, who are stationed in the several provinces on the Tartar frontier, and occupy all the garrison towns of the empire; the other composed of Chinese, who are parcelled out in the smaller towns and hamlets to keep the peace, by acting as constables, subordinate collectors of the taxes, guards to the granaries, and assisting in various ways the civil magistrate. Along the public roads, canals and rivers, are placed, at certain intervals, small square guard-houses, at which are stationed from six to twelve men, who are employed in settling disputes upon the rivers or roads, and also in conveying the public dispatches.
689 visits
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The annexed figure, either from the striped dress, or the furious looking head painted on the shield, has been called a tiger of war; but he is not so fierce as he appears to be, or as the name would imply; indeed the Chinese admit that the monstrous face, on the basket-work shield, is intended to frighten the enemy, and make him run away; like another Gorgon’s head to petrify those who look upon it. This corps of infantry, in its exercise, assumes all kinds of whimsical attitudes, jumping about and tumbling over each other, like so many mountebanks.
569 visits
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Almost every necessary of life, and many articles that are not of that description, are carried about the streets for sale, and the invariable mode of bearing burthens of this kind is in baskets or boxes suspended from the two extremities of a bamboo lath, swung across the back part of the shoulder. If a Chinese should only have one basket to carry, he is sure to get a log of wood, or a large stone to counterpoise it at the opposite end, thus preferring to carry a double weight rather than place it on the head, or the shoulder, or across the arm. The Chinese are in appearance far from exhibiting any signs of great muscular powers, but in lifting, or carrying a load, they are probably not excelled by the porters even of Ireland.
716 visits
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The vehicles of this description are nearly as various in the different provinces of China, and among the different ranks of inhabitants, as their boats and barges are. The one here engraved belongs to a person in a certain `rank` of life, probably an inferior mandarin. It will be observed that, instead of carrying the poles in the hands, as we do, the Chinese carry the chairs on the shoulders by means of a cross-bar fixed to the poles by straps: but different kinds of chairs are carried in different ways.
889 visits
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Whenever the Emperor of China goes in state to transact public business, to receive ambassadors, or to hold a court, he is carried in the same kind of a sedan chair as are commonly used in Europe, and which, as well as umbrellas, have obviously been first introduced from China. The soft luxury of an Indian palanquin is unknown to the Chinese. By means of poles attached to each other the Emperor’s chair, on grand occasions, is carried by eight pair of bearers, sometimes by four pair, but on ordinary occasions he has no more than two pair. They are generally the stoutest and tallest men that can be found, and are dressed in a long yellow vest, which is the colour assumed by the imperial family.
631 visits
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There is every reason to believe, that Punch and his wife were originally natives of China; and that all our puppet-shows were brought from that country. The little theatre, above the head of a man concealed behind a curtain, is precisely Chinese. Les ombres Chinoises still bear the name of their inventors; but the annexed representation of a puppet-showman is somewhat different from both, and is the simple origin of the Fantoccini, which consists in giving motion to the puppets, by means of springs attached to particular parts of the figures. These little dancing puppets are not merely exhibited for the amusement of children; they furnish entertainment for the Emperor and his court, and more especially for the ladies who, from their recluse mode of life, are easily diverted with any kind of amusement, however childish. We find from Mr. Barrow, that a puppet-show was one species of entertainment given to Lord Macartney and his suite at the Emperor’s palace of Gehol in Tartary.
706 visits
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A Porter carrying goods
1219 visits
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The annexed are portraits of a female servant, and of a male and female child, which will give a tolerably correct idea of the dresses worn by them respectively. That of the maid servant differs in nothing from her mistress, but in the materials; the latter generally wearing silk, and the one in question cotton. A Chinese woman of the meanest condition would feel herself degraded if not allowed to mutilate her feet.
608 visits
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At certain distances, more or less remote according to the nature of the country, along the roads, and the banks of the interior navigations, are placed small parties of soldiers from five or six to a dozen, and sometimes more. They are employed in conveying the public dispatches, and in assisting the magistrates to quell disturbances. The immense army of China is for the most part parcelled out in this way. Near each of these posts is a tall wooden building from whence they can see and communicate by signals with the next stations. The men till the ground, and perform other kinds of labour; but are always expected to turn out in their holiday dress when an embassador or any of their ta-zin or great men happen to pass the station, on which occasion they generally fire three little petards stuck into the ground with the muzzle upwards as a salute.
564 visits
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The annexed is a portrait of a true Tartar horse, which seems to be pretty much of the same breed as those of the Cossacks. The Chinese horses are precisely of the same kind. In fact, no pains whatever appear to be taken either for improving the breed, or by attention to their food, cleanliness, or regular exercise, to increase the size, strength, or spirit of the animal. A currycomb, or any substitute for it, is unknown in China. Indeed horses are not much in use. Wherever the nature of the country admits of canals or navigable rivers, travelling and conveyance of every kind are principally performed on the water.
593 visits
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The Picture shows the page or body servant of a mandarin, to carry his papers, his writing apparatus, the cushion on which he sits, or lays his head; he takes care of his areca-box and his tobacco pipe, attends him on all occasions, fans him while asleep; and, if report speaks truth, serves him for other unworthy purposes. Every mandarin has one or more of these kind of boys whom, even in public, they treat with a familiarity which is not quite decorous. The upper vest, worn by the person in the annexed figure, is of fur, which in all the northern provinces is found to be absolutely necessary in the severe cold of the winter months.
523 visits
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This gentleman is a sort of appendage to a man in power. Some half-dozen of them generally precede a mandarin of `rank` when he goes in procession, but more especially when he attends a tribunal of justice. Their peculiar province seems to be that of keeping off the crowd. The feathers they wear in their tall conical hats are from three to six feet in length, and are apparently the tail feathers of a peculiar species of pheasant, which is represented as very scarce. Some of them wear the tail feathers of the argus pheasant.
507 visits
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All officers of state, whether civil or military, from the highest to the lowest, have been named by the early Portuguese writers mandarins, from a word in their own language, mandar, to command; and this name, improper as it is, has preserved its ground ever since. The figure of a bird on the embroidered breast-plate of the annexed figure points him out as a civilian. A military officer wears the figure of an animal resembling the tiger. The degree of `rank`, whether civil or military, is marked by a small globe on the top of the cap, opake red coral distinguishing the highest, and brass the lowest `rank`: the intermediate colours are transparent red, opake and transparent blue, opake and transparent white. As a mark of imperial favour, one, two, or three feathers from the tail of the peacock are appended to the back part of the bonnet. All officers, whether civil or military, invariably wear thick-quilted boots, and, when in their court-dresses, embroidered petticoats. Most of them wear chains of coral, or agate, or coloured glass round the neck, as in the annexed figure.
1188 visits
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The official habits in which all the mandarins are compelled to appear in public being made of the thickest silk, are exceedingly cumbersome, and not well adapted for the summer months, which are excessively hot even in the most northerly provinces; they therefore in private take every opportunity of throwing off their ceremonial garb, and assume a thin loose gown, tied with a belt round the waist. Their summer-hat is also made of light rice straw. The head is not encumbered with hair, which all ranks and ages shave close off, leaving only a small lock hanging down behind. The use of fans is universal. Even the military, when drawn out on parade-duty, make use of fans. It will be observed in this figure, that the spectacles worn by the Chinese are considerably larger than ours: they are made of cristal, glass being a species of manufacture unknown in China.
507 visits
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The very general use of tobacco throughout the whole extensive empire of China, and the still more extensive regions of Tartary, would seem to contradict the commonly received opinion, that this herb is indigenous only in America. One can hardly suppose that the Chinese, who are so remarkably averse from the introduction of any thing novel, would, in the course of three centuries, have brought the custom of smoking into universal use; yet so it is; men of all ranks and all ages; women, whatever their condition in life may be, and children even of both sexes of eight or ten years of age, are furnished with the necessary apparatus for smoking tobacco. In walking the streets, in almost all the occupations of life, the tobacco pipe is seldom out of the mouth.
730 visits
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His dress is pretty nearly that of the class of people to which he belongs. The Chinese are excellent domestic servants and they are invaluable.
1043 visits
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The practice of smoking tobacco is not more common, at least in the southern provinces of China, than that of chewing the areca nut, mixed with chunam, or lime made of shells, and wrapped up in a leaf of the betel pepper. Indeed this compound masticatory is in universal use throughout all India, the Oriental Islands, Cochin-china, and Tonquin. In addition to the little purse which every Chinese wears suspended from his belt as an appendage to his tobacco pipe and to hold the ingredients for smoking, whether tobacco, or opium, or both, he generally carries another to contain areca nuts broken into small fragments: the other materials, the betel leaf, and chunam are to be met with in every little eating shop, and on almost every stall in the bazar, or market, and are among the most common articles carried about the streets for sale.
641 visits
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Sunrise over sea
312 visits
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Piccadilly Circus
757 visits
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Joseph Hodges Choate
366 visits
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Horse and Cart
313 visits
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Man filling up his glass
599 visits
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Farewell
111 visits
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Man with Monocle
265 visits
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Divider
293 visits
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Floral page divider
293 visits
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Croquet
572 visits
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Two men sitting in the garden chatting
484 visits
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Castle Divider
284 visits
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Young man listening to an authority figure explaining why he is not getting something.
276 visits
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Butterfly
249 visits
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Book Divider
278 visits
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Baking Bread in Murray Bay
389 visits
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Art Critic
105 visits
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A Road near Murray Bay
280 visits
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A typical family and house in Murray Bay
284 visits
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Canadian Summer Resort
From the manor-house the road runs along the edge of the bay, where picturesque schooners float or lie on their sides, according to the tide, and then on to the village of Malbaie, or Murray Bay.
315 visits
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vase divider
271 visits
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The Thames
570 visits
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At the end of the bay stands the Far Village church in all her kindly, simple seriousness. Her bells ring out the angelus over the waters of the bay, along the shores, and back into the uplands, proclaiming that she is ready, like a hen gathering her chickens under her wings, to receive and comfort all the faithful.
380 visits
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Decoration
259 visits
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Decoration
254 visits
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Sailing Ship Divider
384 visits
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Horse and Cart divider
300 visits
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Cross with rays
414 visits
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floral divider
331 visits
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Page Border
360 visits
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Page Border
376 visits
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Skulls of Iguanodont and Trachodont Dinosaurs
466 visits
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Skulls of Horned Dinosaurs. The lower row, Ceratops, Styracosaurus, Monoclonius, are from the Middle Cretacic (Belly River formation) of Alberta; Anchiceratops is from the Upper Cretacic (Edmonton formation) of Alberta; Triceratops and Torosaurus from the uppermost Cretacic (Lance formation) of Wyoming.
484 visits
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Skulls of Dinosaurs, illustrating the principal types
493 visits
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This animal probably reached the maximum of size and of development of teeth and claws of which its type of animal mechanism was capable. Its bulk precluded quickness and agility. It must have been designed to attack and prey upon the ponderous and slow moving Horned and Armored Dinosaurs with which its remains are found, and whose massive cuirass and weapons of defense are well matched with its teeth and claws. The momentum of its huge body involved a seemingly slow and lumbering action, an inertia of its movements, difficult to start and difficult to shift or to stop.
482 visits
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Outline sketch restoration of Triceratops, from the mounted skeleton in the National Museum.
493 visits
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Outline Restorations of Dinosaurs
449 visits
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Hind Feet of Dinosaurs, to show the three chief types (Theropoda, Orthopoda, Sauropoda)
434 visits
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The Largest Known Dinosaur. Sketch reconstruction of Brachiosaurus, from specimens in the Field Museum in Chicago, and the Natural History Museum in Berlin.
425 visits
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Chair to assist in straightening of the spine
Where frequent lying down on a sofa in the day-time, and swinging frequently for a short time by the hands or head, with loose dress, do not relieve a beginning distortion of the back; recourse may be had to a chair with stuffed moveable arms for the purpose of suspending the weight of the body by cushions under the arm-pits, like resting on crutches, or like the leading strings of infants. From the top of the back of the same chair a curved steel bar may also project to suspend the body occasionally, or in part by the head, like the swing above mentioned. The use of this chair is more efficacious in straightening the spine, than simply lying down horizontally; as it not only takes off the pressure of the head and shoulders from the spine, but at the same time the inferior parts of the body contribute to draw the spine straight by their weight.
167 visits
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Steel Bow to diminish curvature of the spine
I have made a steel bow which receives the head longitudinally from the forehead to the occiput; having a fork furnished with a web to sustain the chin, and another to sustain the occiput. The summit of the bow is fixed by a swivel to the board going behind the head of the bed above the pillow. The bed is to be inclined from the head to the feet about twelve or sixteen inches. Hence the patient would be constantly sliding down during sleep, unless supported by this bow, with webbed forks, covered also with fur, placed beneath the chin, and beneath the occiput.
176 visits
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Making lime from oyster shells in a kiln, about 1625. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
1702 visits
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Blowing glass at Jamestown in 1608. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
1797 visits
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Making “trialls” Of iron. Evidences of an earth oven or small furnace were discovered at Jamestown during archeological explorations. Small amounts of iron may have been smelted in the furnace during the early years of the settlement. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
1980 visits
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In 1955 a pottery kiln site was discovered at Jamestown. Nearby were found many utilitarian earthenware vessels of the 1625-40 period—definite evidence that pottery was made in Virginia over 300 years ago. Although made for everyday use, many of the pieces unearthed are symmetrical and not entirely lacking in beauty. The unknown Jamestown potters were artisans, trained in the mysteries of an ancient craft, who first transplanted their skills to the Virginia wilderness.
1928 visits
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For everyday use the Jamestown settlers wore hardwearing clothes made of homespun cloth. (conjectural sketch by Sidney e. King.)
943 visits
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“Harvesting” Ice, about 1650. Archeological excavations revealed that icehouses were built on the historic island over 300 years ago. (painting by Sidney e. King
944 visits
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Drawing of Jamestown
884 visits
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A family enjoying a meal, about 1650. Many of the eating and drinking vessels portrayed, together with much of the tableware, are types which have been excavated. (conjectural sketch by Sidney e. King.)
760 visits
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Interior of Jamestown house
The interior of a small Jamestown house, about 1650. Although the painting is conjectural, many items shown - pottery, glassware, fireplace tools and kitchen accessories were unearthed on this historic island.
605 visits
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Firing a demiculverine from a bastion at “James Fort.” (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
3702 visits
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Enjoying a smoke in a tavern, about 1625. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
The first colonists were quite familiar with the use of tobacco, and it is believed that many of them smoked clay pipes. Evidently there was some demand for tobacco pipes by the early planters as one of the men, Robert Cotten, who reached Jamestown in January 1608, was a tobacco pipemaker.
In 1611-12 John Rolfe had experimented with tobacco plants in Virginia (he used Virginia plants as well as varieties from the West Indies and South America), and was successful in developing a sweet-scented leaf. It became popular overnight, and for many years was the staple crop of the infant colony. There was a prompt demand for the new leaf in England, and its introduction there was an important factor in popularizing the use of clay pipes. After 1620 the manufacture of white clay pipes in England increased by leaps and bounds.
573 visits
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Cultivating a small garden in Virginia.
(Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
849 visits
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Building a wharf, about 1650. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
Piers and Wharfs.—In order to accommodate such large sailing vessels, piers and wharfs had to be built at Jamestown. A 1,300-pound iron piledriver was found in the basement of a 17th-century building in 1955. It was probably used three centuries ago for driving piles in the James River during construction of a small wharf.
507 visits
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Brewing beer at Jamestown. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
966 visits
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Baking bread in an outdoor baking oven about 1650. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
1928 visits
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A wharf scene—arrival of a ship from the mother country. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
During the 17th century, active trade was carried on between the Virginia colony and the mother country. Local commodities of timber, wood products, soap ashes, iron ore, tobacco, pitch, tar, furs, minerals, salt, sassafras, and other New World raw materials were shipped to England. In exchange, English merchants sold to the colonists, tools, farm implements, seeds, stock and poultry, furniture and household accessories, clothing, weapons, hardware, kitchen utensils, pottery, metalware, glassware, and certain foods and drinks.
There is also good evidence that some trade was carried on with Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Mexico, and the West Indies. Many artifacts unearthed (especially pottery) were made in the countries mentioned. It is believed that certain commodities were acquired by direct trade with the country where made, in spite of the strict laws by which the Colonial Powers sought to monopolize the colonial trade for the benefit of the mother country.
1050 visits
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Making lime from oyster shells in a kiln, about 1625. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
1994 visits
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A physician bleeding a patient. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
One of the members of the first colony was a surgeon, William Wilkinson by name. As the colony grew, other surgeons, physicians, and apothecaries, emigrated to Virginia. Their lot was not easy, for it appears that they were seldom idle in an island community having more than its share of “cruell diseases, Swellings, Flixes, Burning Fevers, warres and meere famine.”
During archeological explorations, drug jars, ointment pots, bleeding bowls, mortars and pestles, small bottles and vials, and parts of surgical instruments were recovered. These, undoubtedly, were used countless times at Jamestown by unknown “chirurgions,” doctors of “physickes,” and apothecaries—men who tried to keep the colonists well with their limited medical equipment and scant supply of drugs.
2113 visits
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Spinning thread or yarn and weaving cloth were endless chores for the women living in the small wilderness settlemenT. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
1960 visits
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Settlers trading with the indians—bartering casting counters and other trade goods for furs. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
One reason why the colonists selected a site for Jamestown some miles up the James River was to develop the Indian trade over an extensive area. During the early years of the colony, trade with the natives was encouraged. It is clear from the early records that the settlers bartered such items as beads, cloth, penny knives, shears, bells, glass toys, whistles, hatchets, pots and pans, brass casting counters, and similar objects in exchange for Indian corn (and other vegetables), fish, game, fruits and berries, and furs.
1721 visits
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Playing a Jew’s harp—enjoying a little music in the Virginia wilderness. (Conjectural sketch by Sidney E. King.)
A large assortment of iron and brass Jew’s harps (also known as Jew’s trumps) have been found. This small instrument is lyre-shaped, and when placed between the teeth gives tones from a bent metal tongue when struck by the finger. Modulation of tone is produced by changing the size and shape of the mouth cavity.
909 visits
