Items

• Chinese Laborers in Chungking
  Group of several laborers carrying water up a steep, narrow street in Chungking. There was no other way to bring water into the city but to carry it up in buckets from the river.
• Water Carriers in Chungking
  Eleven laborers equipped with wooden buckets gather water up from the riverfront at Chungking. Several boats sit upon the river, and two kids are looking at the laborers.
• Group around Garbage
  Large group of people salvaging a garbage pile. Some are accompanied with wooden baskets. Some of the notorious Sichuan feral dogs get in on the action.
• Fortune Teller
  Several persons gathered around a fortune teller as he reads sacred inscriptions on pieces of paper.
• Several Farmers Threshing Grain
  A small group of four Chinese farmers of varying ages at work around beds of straw. There is some form of stable or barn in the background.
• Two Farmers in a Rice Paddy
  Two farmers are harvesting rice stalks out of a deep rice paddy using wooden buckets to store them. The background shows terrace farmland stretching out for acres.
• Farmers Tilling a Field
  The scene depicts around ten farmers tilling the ground of a farmland, with some hills in the background. The farmers are using wooden plows to till the ground.
• Farmer with Manure
  Farmer pouring manure fertilizer from one wooden bucket to another in an open farmland. Farmers in Sichuan used human excrement, known as "honey buckets," for manure. This was a health hazard that spread intestinal worms and other illnesses, requiring the missionaries to avoid eating all manner of raw produce and to have anti-worm treatments regularly.
• Farmer with a Water Buffalo in a Rice Paddy
  Scene shows a farmer reining in a water buffalo in a cultivated field. There appears to be traditional farmhouse building in the background.
• Farmer with Water Buffalo
  Scene shows a farmer reining in a water buffalo in a cultivated field. There appears to be traditional farmhouse building in the background.
• Farm Boy
  Young Chinese farmboy in a straw hat standing before some trees.
• Chinese Druggist
  Older Chinese druggist at a stall with a carved wooden statuette and several medicines on a counter in front of him.
• Statue of Confucius
  Statue of Confucius placed centrally in an unknown temple.
• Christian Church in Chengdu
  Church operated at Sichengci Street, Chengdu, by the Canadian Methodist Mission with an all native Chinese congregation. One can see a blend of Christian and Chinese iconography. There are twelve male and female members of the choir in total, and they are all wearing brown robes.
• Emaciated Group of Beggars
  A fairly large group of emaciated beggars, several with children. The three beggars in the foreground appear to be an older woman, a mother and child.
• Young Chinese Barber
  Young Chinese boy giving another boy a haircut on the street next to the storefronts, with several onlookers.
• 07 Drying Clothes at Bowles' Yangtze River Wreck
  Portrait of six of the missionaries standing in the sand bank of the Yangtze in front of their drying clothes. The ones on the left look a little perturbed due to the event that just happened, whilst the others look giddy despite the event. Newton Bowles stands to the far left. He comments that he looks "the most like a tough," with his hat cocked to the side. The exact location of the Bowles' junk accident is unknown; however, we do know it occurred in the region now flooded by the Three Gorges Dam.
• 06 Bowles Yangtze River Party at Wreck Site
  Picture shows the missionary ground gathered around the items they salvaged from the wreck, such as straw, crates, a dresser, some picture frames, and an assortment of books and papers strewn across the ground. The clothes are drying on lines in the background, and far in the back is a forest. The exact location of the Bowles' junk accident is unknown; however, we do know it occurred in the region now flooded by the Three Gorges Dam.
• 05 Bowles Wrecked on the Yangtze River
  In the foreground on the rocky river bank are some clotheslines held up on sticks drying the clothes that were soaked in the accident. The missionaries are gathered in front of the damaged junk, which the trackers are maintaining. The exact location of the Bowles' junk accident is unknown; however, we do know it occurred in the region now flooded by the Three Gorges Dam.
• 04 Trackers on Shore Preparing for the Gorges
  When the Bowles's houseboat reached the entrance to the Three Gorges above IChang (Yichang), the captain hired extra trackers who lived in this region specifically to perform this job. Sometimes over 100 trackers were needed to literally pull boats up the rapids.
• 03 Yangtze River View Showing Sheer Cliff
  Scene of a cliff within one of the Yangtze River gorges with a single tree atop it. A houseboat in the lower left foreground provides a sense of scale to the rock faces on both sides of the river.
• 02 Rapids Through the Yangtze Gorges
  Image shows two Chinese junks riding on the rough rapids of the Yangtze. Pictured in the background are the sides of the gorges with trees on them.
• 01 Dangerous Rapids on the Yangtze River
  Image of Yangtze shoals. This refers to the German steamer Sui Hsiang which, on its maiden voyage in 1900, struck this rock and sank within 15 minutes. Two CIM missionaries who were on board were saved by the Chinese lifeboats that were stationed here due to the frequency of accidents at this place (Davidson 1905).
• Horse Carriage in Victoria
  Photo shows Newton Bowles in a group of people riding on a horse-drawn carriage through a residential street in Victoria, British Columbia. Three houses are captured in the background. This shows North American transportation at the port where the "Victoria Eight" were about to board the ocean liner, the Empress of China, on their inaugural journey to their chosen mission field in West China.
• Bowles and Friends at Whitby
  Portrait shows 18 women and 6 men at Whitby, Ontario. The group is posed in front of a large tree on the grounds of a church or school visible in the background. The women are lined up with their hands on each other's shoulders. The men are sitting on the ground in the foreground. Two of them are holding up a sign that says, "CHINA." This probably represents a going away party for 6 of the "Victoria Eight" in Bowles' hometown of Whitby, Ontario.