This collection is located on-site.
Very rare album of 70 photographic prints of the Russo-Japanese War by George Henry Rogers, operator and the war correspondent of the Charles Urban Trading Co. He has made his application from Paris. Here he waited three months before a permit to go to Russia was granted. After waiting three weeks in St. Petersburg, he was allowed to proceed as far as Irkutsk. At this town, he was turned out of the train, on the ground that transport was needed for the military for war stores. So Mr. Rogers bought a sledge and three ponies, and fortunately falling in with a troop of cossacks arrived, after seventeen days travelling, at Harbin where he was by the end of April (source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0821146/plotsummary). During that time, George H. Rogers managed to film the newsreel "The Russian Army in Manchuria" as well as took photos that were included in the album entitled "The Bioscope, with the Russian Army in Manchuria." Photographs captured scenes of the war including Russian troops in Irkutsk; Generals Kuropatkin, Grekov and Rennenkempf; reservists getting on the train; Russian infantrymen; a Cossack division; General Kuropatkin with viceroy of Mukden; General Kuropatkin in Harbin; beheading of prisoners; photographs of Rogers. There is an inscription in French: "Dédié Respectueusement a mm. les Généraux Rennenkampf et Grekoff en témoignage de remerciement pour leur courtoisie envers l'auteur, qui a suivi les troupes russes en mandchourie depuis le commencement de la guerre. G. H. Rogers Janvier 1905."
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Bioscope avec l'Armée Russe en Mandchourie; Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Photograph Album: Source of acquisition--D. D. Chikhachev. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1954.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Photograph Album Accessioned 1954.
Photograph Album Processed 01/--/79.
Formerly part of Bakhmeteff (BAR) General Ms Collection with Coll No. BAR Ms. 6
This collection was formerly titled George H. Rogers Photograph Album
2020-05-01 PDF removed. jg
2022-09-08 authorities revised, notes revised and expanded, bio note added; new collection number was assigned as a part of the project of integrating BAR General Bound Ms into BAR manuscript collection. ksd
2022-09-08 Collection was renamed. Previous name was George H. Rogers Photograph Album. ksd
George H. Rogers (George Henry Rogers; 18??-19??) was one of two American cameramen who worked for Urban. Previously a props manager for the American-Hungarian impresario Bolossy Kiralfy, Rogers joined the Warwick Trading Company in 1900, working initially in the stores and shipping departments, and soon became one of Urban's most trusted colleagues. He spoke French, German and Russian, and was made manager of Warwick's Paris office in 1902, and he stayed with Urban when the latter formed the Charles Urban Trading Company, where his most notable project was filming the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. He never came near to the warfront, working "extensively in Russia and Manchuria," he managed to make "a notable film," advertised as "the living history of the great war." Rogers was also a director of the Charles Urban Trading Company, and managed its Paris branch until the formation of the Eclipse company in 1909. (sources: https://www.charlesurban.com/biographies.html and Peter Karjilov "The Cinematographic Activities of Charles Rider Noble and John Mackenzie in the Balkans, v. 1).
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.