Image Archive - Database

Among Anthony Clark’s interests related to the history of Sino-Western exchange is the discovery, preservation, and analysis of Chinese Christian art and missionary photography, which has grown more popular as a scholarly topic of research. While Clark has collected and digitized such images in Europe, China, and the US, one of the most exhaustive collections he has helped preserve is the one presently held by the Société des Auxiliaires des Missions (SAM). All the photographs and images included in this SAM China Mission Photograph Collection were obtained from the main SAM archive kept at the Centre SAM in Brussels, Belgium. Clark collaborated with a six-member team in Brussels to digitize the SAM China Mission Photograph Collection, which was undertaken with the particular direction of Jean-Paul Wiest, who mapped out the project and wrote the entries for each digital photograph. Once these Samist photographs and Christian art broadsides were digitized, they were uploaded and made available to scholars in an online interface hosted by Whitworth University Library. Clark has collected and digitized several thousand prints and photographs related ton the Roman Catholic missionary enterprise in China, and continues to make these important historical images available to interested reseacrhers.