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Tanah Abang House, 1866
Walter Bentley Woodbury was born in Manchester, England, in 1834 and was raised by his maternal grandfather. In 1857, still in his early twenties, Woodbury traveled to Java where he founded a busy photographic firm with James Page, and between them, they took the majority of the known photographs of Batavia (present day Jakarta) from the latter part of the 19th century. The two men, accompanied by Walter's brother, Henry James Woodbury, traveled extensively through Central and Eastern Java in 1860, relatively soon after which the photographers went their separate ways. Woodbury remained in Batavia.
In 1863, Woodbury and Page offered a list of sixteen topographical photographs of the city for sale in albumen format. These images are considered the first of their sort from Batavia, which was originally established in 1619 as a colonial supply station for the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie), or the Dutch East Indies Trading Company. Prospering during the 17th and 18th centuries as part of the spice trade, Batavia was a regional center for commerce and colonial administration, but particularly after a wall was erected around the city for security, it gained a reputation as "the Graveyard of Europeans," due to the poor sanitation and the stagnation of the canal system.
Although Woodbury worked initially with the wet-plate collodion negatives and albumen positive prints, he was an avid experimenter in photography, trying his hand at photoceramics, stereoscopic photography, stereoscopic projection, balloon photography, and electromagnetic shutters. He is perhaps most widely known for the photomechanical process he developed in 1866, the Woodburytype. Woodbury died in England in 1885.
The Woodbury Collection consists of 42 medium-format albumen topographical photographs of Java produced by the firm of Woodbury and Page during the 1860s. The majority of photographs were taken in Batavia (modern day Jakarta), with a few from Surabaya and Buitenzorg (modern day Bogor). While Woodbury focused primarily on landscape, several photographs -- particularly those from Batavia -- depict members of the European community, their homes, clubs, and meeting places. Among the sites represented in the collection are the Harmonie Club House, Monlenvliet canal, Michiels Monument, Welsevreden Palace, Willems Church, the residence of Martinus Petrus Pels, and the Governor's palace at Buitzenborg. Photographs of the Tanah Abang house are annotated as "our" house by a person with the initials S.H.W., and who also locates the house in relation to other landmarks and homes in the area.
The photographs are arranged in alphabetical order by title, as supplied by S.H.W. or (perhaps) the photographer.
The collection is open for research.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Walter B. Woodbury Photograph Collection (PH 3). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The Du Bois Library holds a copy of John Thomson's
This collection was originally housed with the John Thomson Photograph Collection (PH 2) and the Felice Beato Photograph Collection (PH 4), which may indicate that the prints were all acquired together by S.H.W. and family while living in Indonesia.
Collection was processed by Meghan Fahey, May 2007.
Back View of Gov. Genl's. Palace at Buitenzorg
Batavia Cemetery, Java
View of European cemetery located in Tanah Abang from inside cemetery fence. Fresh graves in fore. The cemetery was established in 1795 to provide a burial ground for Christians.
Catholic School, Singapore
Chinaman's House at Batavia, Java
Tile roof house with adornment along roof peaks. Exterior of front porch adorned with hanging prints, statues, and sculptural elements. Four people sitting on porch. Believed to have belonged to the Khouw family who were local Chinese landowners. Possibly home of Khouw Kim An chairman of Batavian Chinese Council.
Entrance to town of Batavia
View of arched gate down road lined with trees. Structure originally marked the south entrance to Batavia's old castle built in the 17th century.
House, Tanah Abang
Garden Scene at Kedring Badak
Hamlet's Ghost
Harmonie Club House
View of corner of clubhouse. Social club for European community. This structure was built in 1815.
Horse Railroad Station
Hotel Sumatra
Annotation on image: "Hotel 'Sumatra' at Padang. I lived in the front room at right of picture about 1 year."
Merchant's House in Batavia
Merchant's House, Batavia
Pels House
This image is believed to have been commissioned by Mr. Pels. It appears in a Woodbury & Page album along with nine other photographs but is not recorded as an available print for sale in the Woodbury & Page inventory.
Radheu Saleh House
View of residence from front. House is heavily adorned with statues, urns, and stained glass windows. Manicured lawn and developing gardens visible in foreground. This structure was originally built in 1852.
Pels House
View of house from across the road. Four figures stand looking at camera in front of gate. Martinus Petrus Pels served as the honorary vice-counsel for the United States in Batavia. He likely made his living working for a trading firm and in 1866 served as a member of the Batavian Chamber of Commerce.
Kediri River
Michiels Monument
View of Monument with Roman Catholic Church in right of image. Monument was erected to honor the memory of Major General Andreas Michiel.
Volz Residence, Kings Plain, Batavia
Natives
Padang
Palace at Buitzenborg
Palace at Weltevreden
Large private estate, home to numerous governor generals.
Pasangrahan
Private Residence
River at Tanah Abang
River scene at Buitenzorg
River scene in Surabaya
Road to town, Batavia
Harmonie Club, Rijswijk Portion
View from Rijswijk side.
Salak Mountain River, Buitenzorg, Java
Stadhuis
Stream with Bamboo Banks, Surabaya
Tanabang Road
Temple of Tego Wangie
Turn Verein, Batavia
View at Buitenzorg, near Batavia
View at Tanah Abang
Annotation on image: "The two white pillars at the left represent entrance to house where Mr. Fay [Jay] lived in Batavia, S.H.W." on verso "View at Tanah Abang, Batavia N.B. Our House is just at the right after bridge in the background."
View at Tanah Abang
House, Tanah Abang
Waterloo Plain
View of the military square at sunrise. The Waterloo monument is visible in front of Daendal's palace. The monument was originally erected in 1828 to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo.
Willems Church