These two albums contain 120 black-and-white gelatin silver and albumen photographs taken in China by French physician Henry Coullaud during a campaign by European and U.S. allies during the Boxer Rebellion, 1900-1901. The photographs range from 6x8 inches (17x12 cm) and 3x4 inches (6x8 cm). Each photograph is neatly captioned with location and content. The albums seem to have been a gift from a Chinese family to Coullaud, whose last name, spelled phonetically in Chinese characters, appears on the album covers.
Album 1 starts with images of the French military and naval personnel on board the ship Alexandre III, as well as views of the French and allied fleets; on the way from Marseilles to China, Coullaud captured scenes in the ports of Djibouti, Port Said, Singapore, and Taku (Dagu). There are a number of large group portraits of Chinese high-ranking officials and wealthy men, and a group portrait in a large French medical clinic. Coullaud appears many times in this first album.
He then traveled to the cities of Tian-shien (Tianjin), Pao-Ting-Fu (Baodingfu), Ting-Tcheou (Dingzhou), Tcheng-ting-fou (Zhengding fu), and Sou-Kiao (Suqiao zhen, in Jianxi Province), and other places, where he took photographs of official engagements (theater, orchestra, and meetings with the Chinese), as well as Chinese soldiers and police, a public execution of five men, and a display of severed heads in suspended cages.
The bulk of the images in the second album focus on life in interior eastern China: city street life; pagodas, gates, and city walls; merchants and markets; river life; modes of transportation; and street entertainment. There is also a sequence of many images from a funeral. Images of French celebrations on July 14th show officials throwing coins down to Chinese civilians and officers putting on a theatrical play. There are many images of rural life and work. Photographs of women are infrequent: those that are present show women working in fields, resting during a harvest, or sitting for portraits inside homes. Some of the photographs are intimate and informal, as in the shot of an elderly man bathing a child; others show a certain witticism, as in the image of a man who picks up dung, after which the caption says "One needs some fertilizer!"
