• Felice Beato (photographer)

Partial view of the ruins of the Upper North Taku Fort, showing dead soldiers, Taku (now Dagu), near Tientsin (now Tianjin), China

21 August 1860

- This photograph is one in a series of views which Felice Beato made of the four Taku Forts (Harris, p. 139; Worswick, p. 138). This view shows the inside of the fort at the point where the French forces entered (Harris, pp. 140-141).
- The title of a published identical image, "The Great North Fort at Taku, at the mouth of the Pei-ho, August 21, 1860" is inaccurate, as 'Great North Fort at Taku' is an alternate name for the larger Lower (also known as the 2nd) North Taku Fort and not the Upper North Taku Fort depicted in this image ('The Face of China', p. 33; Harris, p. 142).

Albumen silver print

comp.: 24.6 x 30.1 cm secondary support: 36.7 x 52.0 cm

PH1986:0901:011

• exterior view

inscribed - by an unknown hand, in graphite, on the secondary support, l.c.: with title numbered - by an unknown hand, in graphite, on the secondary support, l.c.: "9" inscribed - by an unknown hand, in graphite, on the sheet, verso, u.l. to u.c.: "Inside of Taku Fort where French entered" [seen in mirror image through recto of photograph]

Dagu; Tianjin; China;

• architecture
• ingénierie
• militaire

• ruins
• casemates
• earthworks (engineering works)
• long guns
• fort
• ramp
• columns (architectural elements)
• ladders
• cannons (artillery)
• defensive walls
• gangway
• corpses