Ivy Plus Libraries' Digital Projects on East Asia

101 titles of Bao Juan寶卷 in Harvard-Yenching library rare collections have been digitized. Among them, 74 titles are from the Hanan collection, 7 titles are in Ming dynasty.

Over 800 local gazetteers published from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Browseable by date, locality, subject and author.

109 titles from the Chinese Maritime Customs collection at the Harvard-Yenching Library, including statistics and descriptive reports, dating from late Qing through early twentieth century.

273 unique or rare Chinese works held by the Harvard-Yenching Library are digitized and become available in HOLLIS.

This includes 1439 titles in the Classics Section, the History Section, 3 volumes of Yong Le Da Dian, and materials in the Qi Rushan Collection on Chinese drama.

307 titles, 2,073 volumes

1,097 titles, 10,818 volumes (excluding 古今圖書集成)

40 titles, 805 volumes

685 titles, 7,965 volumes

Over 1,000 titles

1067 full-image reproductions of Chinese rubbings held by the Harvard-Yenching Library. Detailed information is available for each rubbing in the VIA catalog, and links to the image files appear in HOLLIS and VIA.

5,000 photographs and 10,000 negatives taken by Hedda Hammer Morrison (1908–1991) while resident in Beijing from 1933 to 1946. The photographs, mounted in thematic albums prepared by Mrs. Morrison, and the negatives, were bequeathed to the Harvard-Yenching Library.

The Manchu Collection is composed of translations of Chinese Confucian classics, literature, history, and works on government. It contains many original publications and documents in the Manchu language.

The Ming Qing Women's Writings digital archive and database project is dedicated to the digitization of collections of writings by women in late imperial China (1368-1911). 91 items from the collection are available through HOLLIS.

The Harvard-Yenching Library's Mongolian-language materials are primarily written in the classical script. The collection includes the "red copy" of the Mongolian Kanjur printed in Peking in 1724. It also includes a variety of dictionaries and language manuals for Chinese and Manchu as well as modern scholarship from Inner Mongolia, and Mongolian translations of the Chinese classics.

One of the last widely-used pictographic scripts in the world, Naxi is the written language of the Dongba, an ethnic minority in southwest China. Harvard's collection includes more than 500 manuscripts.

178 titles from the personal collection of Prof. Patrick Hanan, a professor of Chinese literature at Harvard.

276 results. Part of the Manchukuo collection in the Harvard-Yenching Library, depicting people and views in Manchuria during the Manchukuo period. Dimensions: 9 X 14 cm (postcard format)

93 titles from the collection of Dr. Henry Hart (1886-1968)

Over 1000 photos of Muslims and Christian missionaries working among them in Western China in the 1920s and 1930s form the core of this collection, which is supplemented by several hundred books, pamphlets, broadsides, etc., in several languages. Gift of Rev. Claude L. Pickens, Jr. in memory of Joseph Fletcher Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History at Harvard University.

Edward Bangs Drew joined the Chinese Maritime Customs Service in 1864 after earning a degree from Harvard. In 1868, he was appointed a commissioner of the service, a position he held for decades. During that time, Drew collected photos that document clothing, customs, and daily life in 19th-century China.
This collection also includes photos documenting Drew’s life and career, including family and social gatherings, public appearances, and events and ceremonies.

This Fine Arts Library collection includes 500 hand-colored lantern slides depicting images acquired from Universalist minister Roger Frederick Etz (1855-1950) and his 1934 tour of Asia. Most of the images depict Japanese landscape scenes, agricultural production, craftsmen and their workshops, as well as stores and merchandise displays. Also included are images of silk production, tea harvesting, religious ceremonies, and pilgrimage sites and shrines in areas such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Yokohama, and elsewhere.

“Early Photography of Japan” is a virtual collection of more than 40 souvenir photograph albums and illustrated publications with over 2,000 images from Widener Library, the Fine Arts Library, and Harvard-Yenching Library. These images primarily document the early history of commercial photography in Japan and are representative of what is often called Japanese tourist photography or Yokohama shashin. They reflect the Western image of traditional Japanese culture before the dramatic transformation brought about by modernization during the Meiji period (1868-1912).

45 items

76 volumes

In 1910, a German teacher named Bruno Petzold arrived in Japan where he spent the rest of his life until he passed away in 1949. During these days, Petzold became a minister of Tendai Shu 天台宗 and eagerly collected all kinds of books concerning Buddhism. More than 500 scrolls from his collection are available through HOLLIS.

As part of a cooperative project between Yenching Library and Kyujanggak, 219 titles have been digitized as of April 2019. They are available in HOLLIS.

As part of a cooperative project between Yenching Library and Minsokwon, total 72 Sego titles of Korean rare books were digitized between 2010 and 2011. Rare books digitized through this project are accessible through HOLLIS.

328 items

As part of a cooperative project between Yenching Library and the National Library of Korea, 473 titles of rare works unavailable in Korea were digitized between 2007 and 2010. Rare books digitized through this project are accessible through HOLLIS and KORCIS (Korean Old and Rare Collection Information System, https://www.nl.go.kr/korcis/).

The China Historical Geographic Information System (CHGIS) provides a base GIS platform for researchers to use in spatial analysis, temporal statistical modeling, and representation of selected historical units as digital maps. The website includes sample maps, links to papers and presentations which used the platform, and a detailed description of how the information system works and how to use it.

Edited by Merrick Lex Berman, the ChinaMap allows the user to apply dozens of interactive layers to a map of China, including demographic, linguistic, environmental, public health, economic and educational data.

Using data from China Historical GIS, the China Biographical Database and the G. W. Skinner Archive, this interactive map allows the user to view historical data in China, including boundaries, religious sites, transportation routes and biographical data points.

The Japan Disasters Digital Archive (JDA) is an advanced search engine for materials from around the globe, building digital repositories about the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. It aggregates resources such as websites, videos, and photographs, and user testimonials about personal experiences of the disasters and their aftermath.

--Album of photographs chiefly documents the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War with images of the 1937 Battle of Shanghai 淞沪战役 and the Nanking Massacre 南京大屠杀 but also includes images of the First Battle of Shanghai in 1932.

Archival materials from the collection of George A. and Geraldine Fitch. Finding aids currently available online.