"My design is to present a series of pictures of China and its people. Such as shall convey an accurate impression of the country as well as of the arts, usages, and manners which prevail in different provinces of the Empire."
                                                                                          John Thompson - 1868

John Thompson was born in 1837 in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the 1850's he apprenticed to a maker of optical and scientific instruments in Edinburgh while attending the Watt Institution and School of Arts. In 1861, he became a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts. By 1862 he decided to join his brother William in Singapore and in 1865, he began a photographic record of Asia in Cambodia and Malaysia, eventually opening a studio in Singapore. By 1868, John Thompson headed north to Hong Kong and then traveled to Canton and ultimately as far as Beijing, documenting along the way not only the scenery of the country, but the everyday life of its people. He published in four volumes, 200 of his photographs, calling the project, "Illustrations of China and It's People." It is still recognized as one of the most thorough photographic documentaries on Asia.