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Edward Bangs Drew  (1843 - 1924) joined the Chinese Maritime Customs Service in 1864 after earning his BA degree from Harvard. In 1868, Drew was appointed a Commissioner of the Service, a position he held for decades.<br/><br/>

During that time he collected photographs that document clothing, customs, and daily life in 19th century China, and of Drew's life and career, including family and social gatherings, public appearances, and events and ceremonies.
Utagawa Yoshitora (active 1850-1870) was a designer of <i>ukiyo-e</i> Japanese woodblock prints and an illustrator of books and newspapers who was active from about 1850 to about 1870. He was born in Edo (modern Tokyo), but neither his date of birth nor date of death is known. He was the oldest pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi who excelled in prints of warriors, kabuki actors, beautiful women, and foreigners (<i>Yokohama-e</i>).
In September 1945, 20,000 British troops of the 20th Indian Division occupied Saigon under the command of General Sir Douglas David Gracey. During the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Allies had agreed on Britain taking control of Vietnam south of the 16th parallel (then part of French Indochina) from the Japanese occupiers. Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnamese independence from French rule and major pro-independence and anti-French demonstrations were held in Saigon. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the communist Viet Minh.<br/><br/>

The French, anxious to retain their colony, persuaded Gracey's Commander in Chief, Lord Mountbatten, to authorise Gracey to declare martial law. Fearing a communist takeover of Vietnam, Gracey decided to rearm French citizens who had remained in Saigon. He allowed them to seize control of public buildings from the Viet Minh. In October 1945, as fighting spread throughout the city, Gracey issued guns to the Japanese troops who had surrendered. He used them to help maintain colonial rule.<br/><br/>

According to some socialist and communist commentaries, this controversial decision furthered Ho Ch Minh's cause of liberating Vietnam from foreigners' rule and precipitated the First Indochina War. French General Leclerc arrived in Saigon in October 1945 to assume authority but it was not until well into the first half of 1946 that enough French troops had arrived to allow General Gracey to return with his troops to India where the 20th Indian Division was disbanded.
Henri Laurent Rivière (1827–83) was a French naval officer and a writer, chiefly remembered today for his role in advancing the French conquest of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) in the 1880s. Rivière's seizure of the citadel of Hanoi in April 1882 inaugurated a period of undeclared hostilities between France and China that culminated two years later in the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885).<br/><br/>

The Tonkin Campaign (French: Campagne du Tonkin) was a armed conflict fought between June 1883 and April 1886 by the French against, variously, the Vietnamese, Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and the Chinese Guangxi and Yunnan armies to occupy Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and entrench a French protectorate there.<br/><br/>

The campaign, complicated in August 1884 by the outbreak of the Sino-French War and in July 1885 by the Can Vuong nationalist uprising in Annam, which required the diversion of large numbers of French troops, was conducted by the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, supported by the gunboats of the Tonkin Flotilla. The campaign officially ended in April 1886, when the expeditionary corps was reduced in size to a division of occupation, but Tonkin was not effectively pacified until 1896.
Henri Laurent Rivière (1827–83) was a French naval officer and a writer, chiefly remembered today for his role in advancing the French conquest of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) in the 1880s. Rivière's seizure of the citadel of Hanoi in April 1882 inaugurated a period of undeclared hostilities between France and China that culminated two years later in the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885).<br/><br/>

The Tonkin Campaign (French: Campagne du Tonkin) was a armed conflict fought between June 1883 and April 1886 by the French against, variously, the Vietnamese, Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and the Chinese Guangxi and Yunnan armies to occupy Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and entrench a French protectorate there.<br/><br/>

The campaign, complicated in August 1884 by the outbreak of the Sino-French War and in July 1885 by the Can Vuong nationalist uprising in Annam, which required the diversion of large numbers of French troops, was conducted by the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, supported by the gunboats of the Tonkin Flotilla. The campaign officially ended in April 1886, when the expeditionary corps was reduced in size to a division of occupation, but Tonkin was not effectively pacified until 1896.
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758–21 October 1805) was an English flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and having a superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of decisive naval victories. He was wounded several times in combat, losing one arm and the sight in one eye. Of his several victories, the most well known and notable was The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, at the end of which he was shot and killed.
Jean-François de Galoup, Comte de La Pérouse (August 23, 1741-1788) was a French explorer and naval officer. In 1785, the King of France commissioned La Perouse to head an expedition to explore the Pacific Ocean, to investigate whaling and fur prospects, and to establish French claims in this area. La Pérouse had admired the explorer James Cook, and wanted to continue his work.<br/><br/>

La Perouse was assigned two 500-ton ships called the Astrolabe and the Boussole. His crew of 114 included sailors, scientists, a physicist, three draftsmen, three naturalists, clergymen, and a mathematician. They left France in August, 1785.<br/><br/>

La Perouse mapped the west coast of North America in 1786, and visited Easter Island and Hawaii. His ships reached the west coast of Alaska in 1786 and did extensive mapping of the North American west coast from Alaska to Monterey, California.<br/><br/>

Next La Pérouse landed at Botany Bay (Port Jackson), Australia, before heading for the Solomon Islands. La Pérouse took the opportunity to send his journals, some charts and also some letters back to Europe with a British naval ship. He wrote that he expected to be back in France by June 1789, however neither he, nor any of his men, were seen again. Fortunately the valuable written documents that he dispatched with the Sirius from the in-progress expedition were returned to Paris, where they were published posthumously.<br/><br/>

Both of La Perouse's ships were lost in a storm close to the Solomons in 1788. No survivors were ever found.
Henri Laurent Rivière (1827–83) was a French naval officer and a writer, chiefly remembered today for his role in advancing the French conquest of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) in the 1880s. Rivière's seizure of the citadel of Hanoi in April 1882 inaugurated a period of undeclared hostilities between France and China that culminated two years later in the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885).<br/><br/>

The Tonkin Campaign (French: Campagne du Tonkin) was a armed conflict fought between June 1883 and April 1886 by the French against, variously, the Vietnamese, Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and the Chinese Guangxi and Yunnan armies to occupy Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and entrench a French protectorate there.<br/><br/>

The campaign, complicated in August 1884 by the outbreak of the Sino-French War and in July 1885 by the Can Vuong nationalist uprising in Annam, which required the diversion of large numbers of French troops, was conducted by the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, supported by the gunboats of the Tonkin Flotilla. The campaign officially ended in April 1886, when the expeditionary corps was reduced in size to a division of occupation, but Tonkin was not effectively pacified until 1896.