UK National Archives Release Old Photographs of Asia - on Flickr

Submitted by lizchater on Wed, 09/26/2012 - 20:52

Hi,

Just thought I’d let you know that hundreds of old photos, many of Hong Kong are now available for FREE from the UK National Archives on their Flickr website (link below).  Please do pass this on to anyone else who might be interested, a wonderful resource with some rare images.

The National Archives puts hundreds of 19th-century photographs of Asia online as part of Asia through a lens project.

The images from the Colonial Office’s Photographic Collection date back to the include pictures of buildings, people and places.

the collection includes black and white photographs of Hong Kong, China Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Sri Lanka among others.
The photographs have been uploaded to the photo-sharing website
Flickr so that family historians contribute comments and suggestions to help improve the descriptions. The National Archives said: “The CO 1069 series is a diverse collection of images with a rich variety of content. In many instances we know little about the people or contents of the photographs and this is one of the reasons why we have published them online and asked people to comment and share their knowledge. ”

The National Archives has also invited users to link to their own pictures from the region to broaden the collection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/collections/72157631176086816/

  

Best wishes

Liz

Hi Liz,

That's great news - thanks for letting us know. I wonder if they'll keep adding, or if this is all for now?

So far I can see three folders of Hong Kong photos:

If anyone sees a photo there that shows an interesting old building, it's easy to add it to Gwulo (here's how to do it), and then leave a link in the comments on Flickr. eg here's the photo shown on Gwulo, and here's the original on Flickr with a comment.
Regards, David