Charles Le Myre de Vilers - Photographs - Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres Archives
From: David Biggs
Date: Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Is anyone on the list familiar with a collection of photos presented to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Gov Gen Le Myre De Vilers? They were digitized in about 2000-01 by people working at the HCMC Consulate, and I think there were plans to publish them into a book. I believe they belonged to his collected papers from the national archives of the foreign ministry at Quai d'Orsay. The collection of about two hundred photographs include pictures of bridges, waterways, and public buildings around Sai Gon and the delta approx. 1870-1890. Some were taken by Emile Gsell who had a studio in Sai Gon up to 1879 and took pictures for the government.
David
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From: Bradley Davis
Date: Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 8:52 PM
David and list,
I think some of these, at least the Gsell photos, were included in:
Philippe Franchini, Jérôme Ghesquière (ed); _Des Photographes en Indochine: Tonkin, Annam,
Cochinchine, Cambodge, et Laos au XIXe Siècle._ Paris: Marval et Réunion des Musées
Nationaux, 2001.
Bradley Davis
Eastern Wash University
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From: David Biggs
Date: Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Thanks Brad! That volume contains some of the more dramatic pictures from the Le Myre de Vilers Collection of images. There are about one hundred additional images that were digitized that describe less photogenic places in Cochinchine - various bridges and public buildings as well as other scenes of buildings now iconic in Saigon under construction in the 1870s. I believe one image shows the first market at Ben Thanh. Perhaps someone in Paris could shed some light on the Le Myre de Vilers collection at the Foreign Affairs Archive in Paris?
-david
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From: pascal bourdeaux
Date: Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Dear David, Brad and others (from LESS!!)
Here are some links relative to the exhibition and the book publised by the French general consulate in Saigon (2002). With the cover of the book (40 pages for around 20 original pictures).
http://www.vn.refer.org/vietnam/breve.php3?id_breve=36
https://pastel.diplomatie.gouv.fr/editorial/archives/dossiers/regards/asie.html
Pascal Bourdeaux
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
Paris
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From: pascal bourdeaux
Date: Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 12:33 AM
With the pictures...
PB