Photo Album presented to early Yokohama resident George Whitfield Superb Kimbei album with 43 portraits and name index
[Japan] Important, unique, personal, Japanese photo album presented to George Whitfield (1836-1921) by his Yokohama-based sailing friends. Whitfield was one of the 1886 founding members of the Yokohama Sailing Club which later became the Yokohama Yacht Club that still exists today. Some of the people in the album are well-known, such as Alexander Sim, Dr. Edwin Wheeler, Charles D. West, and George H. Scidmore, but this beautiful album helps put faces to names of a number of foreign residents of Yokohama whose images were previously unknown or heretofore undiscovered. According to the Meiji Portraits website, George Whitfield came to Japan in 1867 and established Whitfield & Dowson, a civil engineering, boiler making, shipbuilding, architectural, surveying and land agent company at #69 Yokohama. In 1873, the company became the Yokohama Iron Works. Dowson left the company and Japan in 1877 and in 1879, the name was changed to Whitfield & Co, Yokohama Iron Works. He ran the company until 1890 when he left Japan and this album was given to him at that time. Although the list at the front of the album contains 52 names, there are 41 photos (40 of which are cabinet card-sized plus one being a larger sized portrait of the Abenheim brothers) depicting a total of 43 people and our research appears to show that the first 43 names in order on the list have photos in the album and the remaining 9 people listed do not. The album is complete so perhaps there was not enough time to get photos of all Whitfield's yachting friends or perhaps those nine preferred not to have a photo taken for whatever reason. The names on the list in order (dates, given names, and notes added by us) are: C.M. Martin [almost certainly Clarence Keith Marshall Martin (1862-1949)], Charles Henry Merriman (1864-1890), Henry James Gorman, Jan Jeppe Carst (1836-1925), Richard Abenheim (1868- ??) and his brother Carl [Karl] Abenheim (1873-1897) [photographed together], Alfred Henry Dare (1853-1924), E.W. Tilden, Joseph Freeman Gorham (c1822-1891), J.F. Pinn (?? - 1896), Thomas Hall Tripler (1846-1909), Barton Haight Pratt (1845-1897), Alan Owston (1853-1915) [founding committee member of the Yokohama Sailing Club], Alexander Cameron Sim (1840-1900), G.S. Burdis, E.P. Nuttall, J.O.Averill [founding committee member of the Yokohama Sailing Club], J.C.Nash, Thomas Brewer (1837-1894), F. Hamilton Grant, Edward Powys (1840-1912), [Dr.] Edwin Wheeler (1841-1923), John Latham Owen Eyton (1845-1930), W.B Herbert, F.S. Morse, Alfred Louis Mottu, A.M. Forbes, Charles Dickinson West (1847-1908), John H. Curtis, Lucien Salabelle (1860-1931), Francis Owston (1852-1927), Oscar Balk, John B. Coulson, William Wallace Campbell (1860-1938), Tom Abbey (1868-1923), Arthur Brent, George Hawthorne Scidmore (1854-1922), A.M. Marshall, Capt. John James Efford [founding committee member of the Yokohama Sailing Club] and James Martin Jr. (1842-1915) [photographed together], Edward Beart [founding committee member of the Yokohama Sailing Club], William Adams Oram, and John Mathews James (1839-1908). The following final nine names on the list do not appear to have their portraits in the album: Benjamin Chandler Howard (1849-1912), James Raymond Anglin (1848-1891), E. Leopold, W[alter?].S. Young, James Webster Donald (1839-1895), J. McLean, George Charles Charlesworth (1854-1903), Robert Hay (1852-1909), and Mark Baggallay (1861-1920).
Photos and index on 11 thick leaves.
Yokohama. Kusakabe Kimbei (stamp inside front cover). 1890.
Lacquer covers measure 36 x 27.5cm.
In very good condition. Covers with a few chips at edges. Binding with a little bit of play but still very good. Internally very good. Small, previous German owner's name and address sticker at rear. p36091706b
