Plate Archive

John Thomson

50 public-domain plates in the archive

John Thomson British, b. Scotland, 1837-1921 John Thomson studied chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in his native city. While best known for his views of street life in London, Thomson spent his early photographic career in the Far East. Between 1863-73, based at a studio in Singapore, he photographed India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. He spent two years photographing China, an ambitious project for which he traveled more than 5,500 miles. Returning to England, Thomson used his experiences, and his 2,000 negatives, to write and publish Illustrations of...

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