John Thomson , Foochow and the River Min (1873), Peabody Museum, Salem

if you’re in or passing through Salem, Massachusetts, John Thomson’s album, Foochow and the River Min (1873), will be on view at Peabody Essex Museum until May 2020. From 1870 to 1871, the Scottish-born photographer traveled 160 miles up the Min River to photograph the area in and around Fuzhou. Thomson’s stunning photographs of China are some of the earliest to circulate abroad in books and periodicals. Of the original 46 copies of this album, only ten are left in the world. PEM holds two of them.

This intimate exhibition features more than 40 striking landscapes, city views and portrait studies that Thomson captured as he traveled in the southeastern Fujian province. Photographs by contemporary artist Luo Dan, who was inspired by Thomson to undertake a similar journey in southwestern China, complement the presentation.