“Cap Shop in Canton” from China in a Series of Views
Published by The London Printing and Publishing Company, Peter Jackson, Fisher, Son, & Co., London, England, 1850
Special Collections, King Library, Miami University, DS709.A44
China in a Series of Views depicts travel, architecture, social life, and customs in China during the 19th century. Thomas Allom was an English topographical illustrator who created the engravings accompanying the text written by the Reverend George Newenham Wright. Illustrated travel diaries by Westerners present information that only reinforced biases about the East. A “Vendors Shop in Canton” gives audiences an inside view of trade in China. Various figures are shown interacting within and around a hat shop, providing Westerners a purportedly authentic vignette of local trade within China.