| Description | Cyril Horace Whitaker (1897-1981) joined Asiatic Petroleum Company (APC, now Royal Dutch Shell plc) in 1922 and worked for APC in China from 1925 to 1939, living at the APC Installation near Chongqing (Chungking) 1936-1939. Whitaker was a talented amateur/semi-professional photographer and home film maker – his photography thoroughly documents the APC oil storage depot in Tangjiatuo, near Chongqing, and associated petroleum-related activities. Whitaker married Winifred Ling in 1930; the family photographs include their son Michael. In this collection there are ten photograph albums; loose prints; 8mm cine film (transferred to 5 reels) and cine film boxes; and a book: ‘The Yangtse Gorges / A Photographic Souvenir’ by C. Johnson (n.d., c.1920). The photographs and cine film footage in the Cyril Whitaker Collection have been digitised. Historical Photographs of China ref: CW.
DM2845/1: Photograph album. Photographs taken during the cruise of the SS 'Sarpedon' 31st August 1928 to 23rd September 1928, in Qingdao, Weihai, Tianjin, Dairen, Beijing (including street scenes) and Shanghai. Hand coloured map of the journey. Handwritten captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW01).
DM2845/2: Photograph album. Photographs taken in Singapore, Hangchow, Shanghai (including basket fair, Jing’an Temple), Jiaozhou (Qingdao), Weihai, 1930-1931. Handwritten captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW02).
DM2845/3: Photograph album. Photographs taken during a summer holiday, Weihai, 23rd August 1931 to 11th September 1931. Handwritten captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW03).
DM2845/4: Photograph album. Photographs taken in Shanghai, Zhapu and Suzhou,1936, some coloured. Notable photographs include salt making, a windmill, a picnic with spectators, washing feet by a fire hydrant, a garden railway, Rue Ratard, Shanghai. Handwritten captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW04).
DM2845/5: Photograph album. Photographs of the Yangtze River and Gorges. Notable photographs include wrecked river steamers, riverside views, paint peeled off hot steamer funnel. No captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW05).
DM2845/6: Photograph album. Photographs taken during a summer holiday in Karatsu, Japan, August 1936, and in Shanghai (including Rue Ratard), September 1936. Handwritten captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW06).
DM2845/7: Photograph album. Photographs of the Asiatic Petroleum Company (APC) installation (oil storage depot), house, river, and surroundings, in Tangjiatuo, Chongqing, December 1936, with typed out captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW07).
DM2845/8: Photograph album. Photographs of petrol stations in Shanghai and of the Asiatic Petroleum Company (APC) installation (oil storage depot), in Tangjiatuo, Jiangbei, Chongqing - workers, oil tanks, pontoon, making Shell gasoline tins, pipelines, launches, machinery, rivets, welding, construction, water level depth markers, ‘Shu Kwang’ steamer, ‘Yu Kwang’ tug, oil lighter ‘Minkiang’, a bent propellor and damaged wing of a Douglas DC-2 at Chungking CNAC airfield, 1928-1938. Handwritten captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW08).
DM2845/9: Photograph album. Photographs of the Yangtze Gorges, from Yichang to Chongqing, c.1937, with typed out captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW09).
DM2845/10: Photograph album. Photographs taken in and around Chongqing, including at the Asiatic Petroleum Company (APC) installation (oil storage depot), in Tangjiatuo, Jiangbei, Chongqing, c.1937-1938. Notable photographs include earth shrines (Local Earth Temple or T'u-ti-miao), riverside housing, sampan dwellers, painting an oil storage tank. No captioning. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW10).
DM2845/11: Quality loose photographs and an annotated survey plan of the Asiatic Petroleum Company (APC) installation (oil storage depot), in Tangjiatuo, Jiangbei, Chongqing, dated 22 November 1933. Notable photographs include portraits of Cyril Whitaker in Shanghai Volunteer Corps (SVC) uniform and of APC installation staff, a panorama and other photographs of the installation, local people, riverside scenes, and a sampan cut into two parts as a punishment for stealing. Many of the prints are captioned and some were submitted for publication. (Historical Photographs of China ref: CW-s).
DM2845/12: A book: 'The Yangtse Gorges, A Photographic Souvenir' by C. Johnson (Publisher not known, n.d., c.1936). 14 tipped in photographs and a fold out map entitled 'Ichang to Chungking'. (Historical Photographs of China ref: Bk31).
DM2845/13: 8mm cine films, transferred to five reels. Original cine film packaging, 1930s. These six films have been digitised and can be viewed on request.
Digitised footage:
DM2845/13/1 (5.57 mins). Entitled ‘The Making of a Four Gallon Petroleum Tin’ and filmed at the Asiatic Petroleum Company installation (oil storage depot), in Tangjiatuo, Jiangbei, Chongqing. Historical Photographs of China ref: CW-f01.
DM2845/13/2 (10.5 mins). Entitled ‘Life in Shanghai 1934’. Historical Photographs of China ref: CW-f02.
DM2845/13/3 (8.26 mins). Foreign children playing. A river journey, through the Yangtse Gorges, on a steamer named ‘Tien Kwan’, registered in Shanghai. Historical Photographs of China ref: CW-f03.
DM2845/13/4 (6.16 mins). Scenes at the Asiatic Petroleum Company installation (oil storage depot), in Tangjiatuo, Jiangbei, Chongqing – loading tins of petroleum, unloading and carrying goods, cleaning steps. Historical Photographs of China ref: CW-f04.
DM2845/13/5 (10.39 mins). A compilation of films about Shanghai, entitled, ‘Transport – various types’, ‘Crowded streets’ and ‘The King of the traffic’ (a Sikh Shanghai Municipal Policeman operating traffic lights). Also, film of a stone quarry, constructing a petroleum storage tank in Chongqing, irrigation with a bullock, river scenes, water buffalo, a picnic, speedboat, windmill, houseboat. Dated 16 February 1936. Historical Photographs of China ref: CW-f05.
DM2845/13/6 (11.39 mins). Film of Huangpu shipping, including a British aircraft carrier (HMS Eagle?), funeral figures, Shanghai Bund and streets, snowball fight, snowman, West Lake in Hangzhou, soldiers on parade at Shanghai racecourse, Shanghai Volunteer Corps (SVC) armoured cars, wheelbarrows, grave mounds and ponds, shy agricultural workers, boat train on Huangpu River, smoky factories in Shanghai, Shanghai Volunteer Corps (SVC) machine gun and armoured car #1 at the racecourse in Shanghai, Shanghai Municipal Policeman on horseback, traffic, motorbike, soldiers marching (Scottish, American mounted, Italian), irrigation foot wheel pump, scenes at West Lake in Hangzhou, Broken Bridge in Hangzhou, sedan chair, children swimming and diving, skipping stones at Weihai, righting a yacht, washing hair, King’s Hotel, Weihai, tea, picnic, pailou, farm workers, goats, picking garden flowers, reading on a veranda, horseplay, boy juggling at Shanghai Bund, Royal Navy aircraft carrier (HMS Eagle?), lighter, towing a water taxi. Historical Photographs of China ref: CW-f06. |