Documentary filmmaker Wu Wenguang is widely considered a pioneer of modern Chinese independent film. In 2010 he launched the Memory Project to collect oral histories from survivors of the Great Famine that devastated rural China between 1958 and 1961. Officially known in China as the “Three Years of Natural Disasters” or “The Difficult Three-Year Period,” the Great Famine caused the death of between 20 and 43 million people. More recently the project has also covered the Great Leap Forward of 1958-1960, the Land Reform and the Collectivization of 1949-1953, the Four Cleanups Movement in 1964, and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. The interviews naturally show regional variations in famine experiences and rural culture. They add intimate detail and humanity to the story of the deaths and starvation of millions of Chinese, providing a unique perspective on the unofficial history of the Great Famine. The accompanying website (http://chinesememoryproject.org/) has some featured interviews (http://chinesememoryproject.org/interviews/), a timeline offering more historical context (http://chinesememoryproject.org/timeline/) and an interactive map providing a visualized access to the interviews (http://chinesememoryproject.org/map/)

Sidney D. Gamble (1890-1968), an avid amateur photographer, began taking pictures in China during his first trip to the country with his family in 1908. He returned three more times between 1917 to 1932 and continued photographing the daily life of Chinese citizens. A sociologist and renowned China scholar, he traveled throughout the country to collect data for social-economic surveys and to photograph urban and rural life, public events, architecture, religious statuary, and the countryside. Gamble used a few of the photographs from his extensive collection in his scholarly publications (https://guides.library.duke.edu/Gamblephotos/research) and in slide lectures, the majority of images were never published or exhibited during his lifetime.

Bound photograph album containing 48 photographs taken by Sir Percy Moleworth Sykes during his travels in a mountainous region of Central Asia, now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, with his sister, Ella Sykes.

The album probably belonged to Friedrich Carl Peetz, most likely an officer in the German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) and crew member of the S.M.S. Hertha during the Boxer Rebellion. The images were mostly taken in Tsingtao (Qingdao), Chefoo (Yantai), Hong Kong, Peking (Beijing), and Shanhaiguan during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

The Sidney D. Gamble collection consists primarily of contact sheets, hand-colored glass slides, 35mm duplicate slides, contact prints, negatives, and other photographic formats documenting Gamble's four visits to China from 1908 to 1932. In total, there are over 5,000 unique images covering 12 provinces and Beijing, Chongqing, Tianjin and Shanghai.

The collection contains the prints and negatives of thousands of black and white photographs taken by William Shockley during his travels as a mining engineer in China (including Manchuria), Korea, India, Western Australia, and Russia (including Siberia) between the years of 1897 and 1905, shortly before and during the period of the Boxer Rebellion.

Born in 1865, Lucy Monroe Calhoun became a freelance art critic for Chicago and national newspapers, and served as an editorial reader for the Herbert S. Stone publishing company (1898-1905). In 1904, she married William James Calhoun, who was appointed U.S. minister to China by William Howard Taft, a position he held from 1909-1913. In the 1920s Calhoun returned to China, established her home in an ancient temple, collected art, and became the unofficial "First Lady" of the diplomatic corps in Peking. She remained there until the Japanese occupation of Peking in 1937. The photographs include 740 loose black-and-white photographs, featuring Lucy's residence in Beijing and locations in and around Beijing and elsewhere in China. The papers include mainly her 276-page memoir of her life in China (1910-1936) and five typescript articles on China.

Bound photograph album containing 48 photographs taken by Sir Percy Moleworth Sykes during his travels in a mountainous region of Central Asia, now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, with his sister, Ella Sykes. The gelatin silver prints measure approximately 4 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches and are window-mounted two to a page with calligraphic captions in white ink.

The collection comprises a photograph album with 127 black-and-white photographs (several are hand tinted; most are 4.5 x 6 in.) mounted on 22 boards. The album probably belonged to Friedrich Carl Peetz, most likely an officer in the German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) and crew member of the S.M.S. Hertha during the Boxer Rebellion. The images were mostly taken in Tsingtao (Qingdao), Chefoo (Yantai), Hong Kong, Peking (Beijing), and Shanhaiguan during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

John Thomson's Illustrations of China and Its People, 1873-1874. 200 photographs documenting the people and landscapes of 19th century China.

Tobacco manufacturer, resident of Durham, North Carolina, and Tokyo, Japan. The papers of Edward James Parrish primarily consist of business and personal papers, correspondence (chiefly 1900-1921), and photographic collections of Parrish and of his wife, Rosa Bryan Parrish. Items include a notebook on tobacco trade in China and Japan (1894-1900), letter books (1900-1904), and a scrapbook created by their only daughter Lily Parrish.

Photojournalist (1907-2004) for the Farm Security Administration and Life magazine. Collection consists of 65 black-and-white and one color photographs taken during assignments for the Farm Security Administration and for Life magazine from 1935 to 1968. Subjects include the Sino-Japanese War and 1940s China; World War II, including the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, General MacArthur's return, the liberation of Italy and France, and the surrender of Japan; Japanese war crimes tribunals; the Fukui, Japan, earthquake in 1948; and the Korean War.

Produced mostly by the Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio of China. The material was found in a cinema company office in Henan province, China. Collection of film advertisements and transcripts of Chinese documentary films and newsreels that spans the years 1946 to 1985; bulk of items are transcripts for documentary films and newsreels from the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976.

The collection contains pins, posters, objects, textiles, and printed material, largely produced for a Chinese audience, promoting the ideals and persona of Mao Zedong, the establishment of the People's Republic of China, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

Fourteen 8mm motion picture films created or collected by Isaac Jones Young, III, of Henderson, North Carolina, primarily documenting his time spent in China in the late 1930s.