The Duke University Libraries website is the home of a digital collection with 5,000 photographs taken by Sidney Gamble from 1917-1932. Gamble was a China scholar, a sociologist, and amateur photographer, and this online collection is composed of photos from China, Japan, Korea, San Francisco, and Russia. Interestingly, the collection of photos was also used in two freshmen writing classes at Duke where the students were tasked with captioning some of the photos and the "captions [were] intended to contextualize Gamble's photos in the dramatic changes that took place during this period." Visitors should click on "Duke Writing 20, 2009: A Changing China Through Photos" to see the captioned photos, which elevate the educational content and interest of the photos. The student who captioned the first photo, "American Board Girls's School Middle School Classroom" explains the photograph in detail and places the classroom's arrangement, the presence of a picture of Jesus on a wall, and the presence of girls in the classroom in historical context.
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