Thomas Child (photographer)

[2] During the two decades he spent in China, Child compiled the earliest comprehensive photographic catalogue of the customs, architecture, and people of late Qing dynasty Beijing.

[6] In 1870, Child was hired by Sir Robert Hart to join the Chinese Maritime Customs Service as a gas engineer, and left England for Beijing with his photographic equipment in June of that year.

[2] Child returned to England in 1889 with his family, except for his eldest son Alfred, also employed with the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, who stayed behind in Beijing as his father's successor.

[1] He purchased a home in Chelsfield, Kent, and, in a nod to his time in China, named it "Chang-an-Tang," loosely translated as "Everlasting Tranquillity Studios".

[11] One of Child's most significant contributions to both 19th-century photography and the study of Chinese architecture and history are his photographs of Yuanmingyuan – known in English as the Old Summer Palace – one of the most potent symbols of China's past.

[13] Additional sites that Child photographed such as the Xiyang Lou and the Fountain Gate would be further destroyed in the Boxer War and subsequent conflicts.

[15][16] Child's diaries "provide fascinating insight" into his journey to China, and describe "local inhabitants, cultural and religious practices, buildings and architecture but also ... detailed descriptions of photographs.

[18] Child's albumen prints have also been discovered in albums alongside the work of other Chinese and international photographers of the region such as Lai Afong, Felice Beato[19] and William Saunders.

[11] In 2015, the first modern exhibition of Child's work was held at the China Exchange in London, as part of Asia Art Week.