Quarto album ca. 28x17,5 cm (11x7 in). 12 card stock leaves. With 47 gelatin silver photos mounted in windows, all ca. 10x12,5 cm (4x5 in). Over thirty photos with period ink or pencil manuscript captions on recto or verso. Pencil note “Labels given by Rev. A.W. Cooper before 1930” on the inner side of the front board. Period red full cloth album; front board with a generic gilt-lettered title “Photographs.” Binding rubbed and with minor tears on the extremities and the hinges, several mounts with minor tears, one photo was possibly previously removed, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album of rare interesting photos

Historically significant collection of original snapshot gelatin silver photos illustrating the activities of American Presbyterian missionaries in Siam (modern-day Thailand) - mostly in “Sri Tamerat” or Nakhon Si Thammarat on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, a historical centre of southern Siam. As follows from the note on the inner side of the album’s front cover, the manuscript captions to most photos were provided by A. Willard Cooper, a Presbyterian missionary who served in the country for over forty years. Having arrived in Siam in 1886, he was stationed in Ratchaburi, Phitsanulok and Chiang Mai, where his second wife was buried (See more: Death of Rev. A.W. Cooper. Forty-four Years’ Missionary Work in Siam// The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 30 January 1930, p. 5; eresources.nlb.gov.sg).

The photos mainly relate to the history of the Presbyterian missionary station in Nakhon Si Thammarat, or “Nakawn,” founded in 1895. By the early 1900s, the station included a church, a boys’ school and three chapels in the countryside. “The first resident missionaries were Rev. Charles E. Eckels and Mrs. Eckels, with Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton, who arrived in March 1900. <…> A boys’ school was begun in May 1901, taught by a graduate of the Christian High School. The medical work is large and promising, although it has been retarded by the fact that Dr. Hamilton was forced to leave during the first year on account of his wife’s health. Here as in Peitsanuloke, all the running expenses of the mission are borne by the people themselves” (Historical Sketch of the Missions in Siam and Laos/ Under the care of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, 1903, p. 23).

The images include views of the Presbyterian “mission house,” “priests’ house,” “hospital chapel” and “dispensing room,” portraits of local Christians and a “Chang & family, chief hospital assistant, Tamerat,” children from the missionary school, the first missionary in Nakhon Si Thammarat – Charles Eckels - and his family (wife Mrs. Margaret Galt Eckels and three out of five kids), a group of Americans (most likely, missionaries) during a leisurely elephant ride, et al. There are also views of Thai town streets (most likely, Nakhon Si Thammarat), temples, fields, irrigation canals, “chapel, Bangkok, near Christian College,” the Gulf of Thailand, &c. Overall a rare historically significant visual source on the history of American Presbyterian missions in Thailand.

“The Rev. Charles Edmund Eckels, 80, retired Presbyterian Missionary to Siam, died early today at his home <…>. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1885 and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1888. The same year he left for Siam as a missionary, representing the Carlisle Presbytery. He remained there for forty years as teacher, minister, and executive, and returned to Carlisle in 1928 when he was retired. His home church is the Second Presbyterian, Carlisle” (Former Siam teacher dies at Carlisle//Harrisburg Telegraph. Harrisburg, PA, August 1, 1941, p. 2; www.newspapers.com).

A list of captions: Probably on Malay Peninsula; Siamese river scene; Sunrise on the Gulf, A Happy Birthday to you, Lawrence [verso]; Typical boat scene; Roadside house, probably tile roof; Mission house, probably Sri Tamerat, brick; Sheltered roofs, corrugated iron, for some public purpose; Street scene, pony cart; Decorated temple; Decorated street scene; Street scene; Typical temple, Prachedi, front, a monument; Near Trang (?); Decorated temple; Priests’ house; Sri Tamerat, Hospital chapel; Dispensing room; Chapel, Bangkok, near Christian College; Group at Sri Tamerat; Water buffaloes under palm tree (cocoanut); Siamese field or junges; Stream or irrigating ditch; Temple buiding, spire for ornament, idol in other part; Typical temple; Elephant tour; Wishing Miss Cooper a Happy Birthday, Florence [verso of the same photo]; Puzzle, final my photo for your birthday, Merton [verso]; Eckels family, 1911 or 1912; Mr. & Mrs. Eckels, Mary, Charlie and Margie, 1911 or 1912 [verso of the same photo]; Maa Make, Bible woman; Chang & family, chief hospital assistant, Tamerat.