Early Photo of a Large Inscription on Riguang Rock Celebrating a Defeat of Japanese Forces in Xiamen, China (1871)

Photo of an inscription on Riguang Rock celebrating a defeat of Japanese forces (probably actually pirates) in Xiamen, China, c. 1871. Taken by Scottish photographer John Thomson. The inscription on the rock seems to have either been destroyed or covered up by construction in the decades after this photo was taken as the few other photos of it known to exist look like they were taken during the 1870s or 1880s.

Source: Wellcome Collection.

Second photo of the rock taken by American photographer Charles William Wason, c. 1880.

A third photo of the rock exists in the Phelps Collection of the National Geographic Society Archives.

Photo of a Scattered Group of Bison Bones Taken in a Field Somewhere in Colorado Territory (1870)

Photo of a scattered group of buffalo bones taken somewhere in Colorado Territory, c. 1870. Taken by photographer William Henry Jackson and created using a scan of the original glass negative.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration.