Fairbanks, William Leroy (1881-1960); Fairbanks, Lulu Edwin (née Hanna, 1882-1955). Content-Rich Keepsake Album with Over 210 Original Gelatin Silver Snapshot Photographs, Over Forty Real Photo and Printed Postcards, and Over Forty Pieces of Various Ephemera (Printed and Hand-Drawn Invitations to Official and Private Events, Cartes-de-Visite, Greeting Cards, Dinner Menus, Manuscript Notes, Drawings, Magazine Clippings, &c.), Taken and Collected during William Fairbanks’ Service as a Secretary in the American Legation in Peking in 1910. Ca. 1909-1910.

Oblong Folio album (ca. 27,5x37 cm or 10 ¾ x 14 ½ in). 43 thick paper leaves (10 blank). With over 210 mounted original gelatin silver photos of various size (several hand-coloured), from ca. 12x16,5 cm (4 ½ x 6 ½ in) to ca. 5,5x7,5 cm (2 ¼ x 3 in); most photos are ca. 8x13,5 cm (3 ¼ x 5 ¼ in) or slightly smaller. At least half the photos with period manuscript ink captions on the mounts (related to individual images or the entire leaf). With over forty mounted real photo and printed postcards (some trimmed to fit on the mount), from ca. 9x14 cm (3 ½ x 5 ½ in) to ca. 4,5x6,5 cm (1 ¾ x 2 ½ in). With over forty pieces of various printed, manuscript and hand-drawn ephemera and magazine clippings, from ca. 24,5x16,5 cm (9 ¾ x 6 ½ in) to ca. 4x7,5 cm (1 ½ x 3 in). Period style navy blue quarter sheep album with cloth boards; decorative gilt-tooled borders on the spine and boards. Mounts slightly age-toned and with minor chipping on extremities, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album of interesting photos.

Historically significant, extensive collection of original photographs, postcards and ephemera documenting the life of American diplomats in Beijing and northern China just a year before the Xinhai Revolution (1911-1912), which resulted in the collapse of the Chinese monarchy and the establishment of the Republic of China. The album was compiled by Lulu Edwin Fairbanks, the wife of William Leroy Fairbanks, who in 1910 served as a private secretary to the U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in China, William J. Calhoun (1848-1916).

The album includes interesting images of the “Old American Legation – ‘San Gwan Meow,’” and two views of the new Legation grounds (the Minister’s residence and the Chancery); three scenes of “arrival of the Minister Mr. Calhoun,” taken at a railway station; a series of views taken during excursions to the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace (during the cherry blossom season), the Great Wall of China, several temples, during boat trips, donkey rides &c. The other photos show the exterior and interior of the Fairbanks’ house in the “old American Legation” and the couple posing at the “gateway to the inner coart [sic!],” a horse race at the Peking race course, a boat on the “canal outside Tartar Wall,” city streets with camels and their herders, rickshaw drivers, passers-by, marching soldiers, carriers of the “red bridal chair,” “flower coolies,” &c.

Over thirty photos were taken during a summer vacation in the resort of Peitaho on the Bohai Sea (Beidahe district, Qinhuangdao) and show the couple in their summer house, a party of Americans donkey riding or boating, a senior American (likely William J. Calhoun) and his wife, Chinese “mat shop,” “Chinese traders,” a “temple in the hills,” &c.

The postcards show several architectural sites of Beijing and its environs (the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Hatamen/Chongwenmen Gate, the Temple of Heaven, Ketteler Monument, the Summer Palace, Pi Yuen Temple), Chinese cart drivers, Transbaikal Railway in Siberia, &c.

Among the mounted ephemera are: the printed emblem of the “Peking Club Race Course” (with a handwritten comment “Pao Ma Chang”), printed programs (performance of the U.S.S. Charleston orchestra in Chinwangtao in July 1910, “Memorial Service in memory of His Majesty the King Edward VII, British Legation”), several hand-drawn and printed invitations for the Fairbanks (to the Japanese Legation, Sir Robert and Lady Breton, “the American Minister and Mrs. Calhoun,” “The Ice Carnival given by the American Legation Guard,” ambassadors of Mexico, France, Japan and Russia, &c.), a typewritten list of the American Legation associates, carte-de-visites (Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Sao-Ke Alfred Sze, Mrs. Barnett), two drawings made in Peitaho (a portrait of W.L. Fairbanks and a sea view), &c.

The album also contains over twenty photos of Lulu Edwin, William Leroy, their family and friends, taken in Virginia and Massachussets in 1909. Over forty photos and postcards (some trimmed) and several pieces of ephemera illustrate the couple’s trip to China in early 1910, showing Nevada and other parts of the American West during the railway journey, San Francisco, scenes on board the S.S. “Korea” on the way to Japan, Honolulu, the Inland Sea of Japan, Nagasaki, Kobe and the harbour of Shanghai.

Overall an attractive content-rich collection of original photos, postcards and ephemera documenting life in the American Legation in Beijing shortly before the Xinhai Revolution.

In 1911-1915, W.L. Fairbanks served in the American Embassy in London and then returned to the United States; in the 1920s, he worked as the director of the Massachusetts Commission on Foreign and Domestic Commerce. The Fairbanks lived in Claremont, California, for the last part of their lives.