5 photographs

Item Details

unknown, unknown, 1906

very good, with edge imperfections as shown

Two of the 5 photos (3.5"x3.5" & 3.5"x4") have inscriptions on back: "'Vacation Letters' Pictures. Mongolia with China 1906. We stopped at this little Mongol settlement for our noon rest one day on the way to Tabol. A new family had just moved in and we saw them put up their tent. This shows the frame work of the tent before the felt covers are roped on. Vacation Letters: Pictures. Tabol. Mongolia. 1906. Mrs. Larson’s tent. These three women are the wives of Mongols in Mr. Larson’s employ. The tent at the right is Mrs. Larson’s kitchen tent, where her servants lived and cooked for her." The other 3: 3.5"x3.5"; 4.5"x4"; 3.5"x4.5". Frans August Larson (1870-1957), a Swedish missionary, was first sent to Urga (Ulaanbaatar) in 1893. In 1895 he went to Kalgan, made a tour of a month in the neighboring portion of Mongolia, and opened a mission station at Hara Oso where he pitched a Mongol tent each summer. He married an American missionary, Mary Rodgers of Albany NY, in 1897 and their city and country homes became a center for missionary recreation. During the Boxer Rebellion, Larson was able to lead a rescue caravan (using the 20 camels and 15 horses belonging to the British consul at Beijing but pastured near Kalgan) north to Urga and Kiachta. “His ability to speak the Mongolian language, and to arrange all matters of business, together with his courage and his known skill with his rifle, were a means of salvation to all his comrades.” Larson and another missionary comrade, James Hudson Roberts, published an account in 1903 (Pilgrim Press, Little Brown, Boston): A Flight for Life and An Inside View of Mongolia. Larson next pitched his tents at Tabol, 85 miles from Kalgan, on the Urga road. In 1902, the British and Foreign Bible Society hired him to distribute bibles to Buddhist monks - using 5 horses, 4 Mongolian assistants and 10 camels. In 1922 Larson started a lucrative trucking business (Dodge trucks from America) covering the road from Kalgan to Urga in 4 days instead of a month by camel. The Larsons moved to the U.S., eventually starting a successful chicken business in San Francisco.  In 1930, Larson wrote Larson Duke of Mongolia (Little Brown, Boston) After Mary’s death, Larson wandered, ending by spending the winters with a daughter in California but the summers with a young Swedish couple he helped establish on Vancouver Island.