Primary Sources: East Asian History

Collection of images from early twentieth century plant explorers in Eastern Asia, includes plants, landscapes, and people.

Extensive collection of still images detailing Protestant and Catholic Missionary work from ca. 1860- ca. 1960, includes some written works.

Open-access archive of digitized photographs, negatives, postcards, rare books, and slides; particular emphasis on the history of Imperial and Occupied Japan.

Digitized collection of miscellaneous items from Princeton's East Asian Library holdings, includes books, manuscripts, reports, maps, and albums.

Online access to declassified records on issues pertaining to US actions/concerns in China and East Asia. Click on article titles to access scanned copies of primary source reports/records.

Collection of primary sources related to the social, political, and religious histories of East Asian countries.

A collection of prints and drawing from the Far East from the 18th and 19th century.

Explore an extensive range of archival material connected to the trading and cultural relationships that emerged between China, America and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries. Manuscript sources, rare printed texts, visual images, objects and maps document this fascinating history.

The Johnson Museum began to collect Asian art in the 1950s; now the collection contains more than eight thousand works of Asian art, most acquired through the generosity of Cornell alumni, faculty, parents, and friends.

A collection of essays, poems, or other texts written in calligraphy. Ehon is a picture book with 1,230 years of tradition.

Documents of persons or groups (Japanese and Allied nations) influential in enacting the Constitution.

Preserves government documents and records received by the Prime Minister from various government agencies to make them available to the public.

189 prints from the Edo Period (1600-1868)

Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925) was a great polymath – notable for his work in natural history, ethnography and art history – but, perhaps most famous for his work in bringing Japan and the West closer together. Morse was one of the first Americans to live in Japan. He went there on a scientific expedition in 1877 and his enthusiasm and approach so impressed his hosts that he was made Chair of Zoology at the new Imperial University of Tokyo. But his interests were never limited to evolutionary theory and scientific methodology – in 1882 he turned his attention to ethnology and the documentation of life in Japan before it was transformed by Western modernization. In addition to preserving the household records of a samurai family and many accounts of the tea ceremony, Morse made notes on subjects as diverse as shop signs, fireworks, hairpins, agricultural tools, artists’ studios, music, games, printing, carpentry, the Ainu, gardens, household construction, art and architecture. An accomplished draughtsman, his pencil and ink drawings, enliven his diaries and correspondence and make his papers a pleasure to read.

Collection of rare books, manuscripts, and special collections relating to the Chinese Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976).

Collection of rubbings from ancient Chinese stone stelae, tomb tablets, Buddhist and Daoist scriptures on stelae and rocks, as well as inscriptions and designs copied from various media.

Collection of over 70 intelligence analyses produced by the CIA on China.

Collection of images documenting 20th century China, Buddhist practices, and daily life in rural and urban China.

30 block prints circa 1911.

Spanning three centuries (c1750-1929), this resource makes available for the first time extremely rare pamphlets from Cornell University Library’s Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia. The resource is full-text searchable, allowing for the collection to be comprehensively explored and studied. In addition, China: Culture and Society features a host of secondary resources, including scholarly essays, an interactive chronology, mini guides, and editors’ choices from the collection.

Sources from the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library, London: 1793-1980. With documents encompassing events from the earliest English embassy to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic, this resource collects sources from nine archives to give an incredible insight into the changes in China during this period.

Explore the history of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, through the wonderfully rich and diverse manuscript collections of the National Library of Scotland.

Collection entitled "Between Literation Space and Time of Need", a collection of rare literary works from 1945-1950.

1950s Digitized Korean War propaganda leaflets pertaining to both North and South Korea. Also contains some surrender appeal and anti-Communist cartoons.

Combination of European and American images of Taiwan, including maps, texts, images, linguistic data, timelines, and placenames.