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The Photographic Materials of Michael H. Finegan Collections
Michael H. Finegan Collections of the Archives of the Institution of Taiwan History include copious photographs and post cards. In addition, many photographic materials stored in the Institution of Taiwan History were collected from our researchers or donated by private collectors. These materials feature a wide range of topics and they are very precious. The Preparatory Office of the Institute of Taiwan History and the Institute of Folk Arts of Taipei National University of the Arts cooperated on the project “Taiwan Visual Memory Digitization and Preservation Project.” We jointly revised and established an appropriate photographic database and its field design from 2002 to 2004. Now, the result of the digitization project is merged into Taiwan Archival Information System and is searchable online.
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IV. The equipment and technique of photography that John Thomson applied

The photography technique that John Thomson applied was wet-plate collodion, which was invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851. The equipment included a wooden camera, a portable tent to be a dark room, glass plate negatives, collodion and silver nitrate used to be sensitizers and developers. However, walking in the old-growth forest with the equipment was not convenient at all. Hence, John Thomson hired several porters assisting him to take photographs. Since the exposing process of wet-plate collodion took several seconds to 2 minutes, the photographer’s expertise and his interaction with the models were both tested. Surprisingly, there were no serious conflicts between the plain aborigines in Taiwan and western people. It was likely that Dr. Maxwell’s introduction already won the trust from Taiwanese plain aborigines. Therefore, they were calm and comfortable when facing John Thomson’s lens. According to what Thomson wrote in Through China: with a Camera, we can know that Taiwanese plain aborigines were very hospitable.


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