A Tourist's Album of Japan

Katherine Wolcott and her uncle, Robert Hull Fleming, compiled this photo album on their visit to Japan in 1909. Part of a larger Asian trip, the two stopped in Japan and collected photos, postcards, bookmarks, and other materials. Fleming was a graduate of the University of Vermont, and in 1929 Katherine Wolcott helped to fund the construction of the Robert Hull Fleming Museum in memory of her late uncle. This album, a memento from their trip, was part of Wolcott’s own collection. There are nearly 40 leaves of collected photographs and postcards, numbering two to three per album page. The pictures range in content, some depicting staged photos of daily life while others portray landscapes and countryside. The album itself measures approximately 11 x 14 x 4 inches and is currently housed at the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont. Wolcott’s album captures a unique view of Japan at the brink of burgeoning Western influence. After defeating the Russians in the Russo Japanese War (1904-05), Japan began to cement itself as a global power, and its efforts to modernize began to attract Westerners. The images in this album depict a Japan with a strong national heritage and cultural appreciation as well as a newfound embrace of modernization and technology. Most of the pictures in the album sold commercially as a form of postcard. In the early 1900s, the Japanese populace began consuming millions of these types of commercially produced picture postcards. Eventually, the medium became so popular that it started to replace the more traditional wood block print. The citizenry sought pictures of their budding nation, wanting to hold a still image of the rapidly modernizing and changing countryside.

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3 1909
Miniature of Woman practicing on a kokyu
Woman practicing on a kokyu
Image nop
    • Date Created: 1909
    • Description: The large instrument, known as a Kokyu, is spread out to its full length in this picture.
    • Parent Collections: A Tourist's Album of Japan, Album of Japanese Photographs
    Miniature of Group of men with Shamisen and sake
    Group of men with Shamisen and sake
    Image nop
      • Date Created: 1909
      • Description: The second man from the left is playing a Shamisen, while the second man from the right is drinking sake. The two others are posing for the music.
      • Parent Collections: A Tourist's Album of Japan, Album of Japanese Photographs
      Miniature of A group of female performers
      A group of female performers
      Image nop
        • Date Created: 1909
        • Description: The woman on the right is holding a Shamisen, while the other women strike poses.
        • Parent Collections: A Tourist's Album of Japan, Album of Japanese Photographs