Vietnam’s rustic beauty of the 19th century

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of relations between Vietnam and France, the National Library of Vietnam is exhibiting more than 200 photos taken by Rousseau.
In February 1895, Armand Rousseau was appointed Governor General of Indochina. He died suddenly on December 10, 1896, after less than two years in office, leaving behind many priceless pictures of Vietnam from his time there. These pictures are historical treasures that help lend insight into the Vietnam of the late nineteenth century.


In 1874, Saigon was set up as a city. By the time Rousseau arrived, the city was bustling. This picture was taken on March 16, 1895, the day he arrived in Saigon. The landscape on the Saigon River is the pier of Maritime with the house that was later identified as the Nha Rong Wharf.

Cho Lon in the late nineteenth century. One can clearly see Chinese with pigtails on the road. However, the architecture is still Vietnamese, indicating that the indigenous imprint at that time was still prevalent and that Chinatown had yet to be formed.

Hai Phong - the first mark of a port city was also captured by Armand. In 1888, Emperor Dong Khanh permitted the French to set up Hanoi, Hai Phong and Da Nang as cities. At the time this photo was shot, Hai Phong City was 8 years old.

The landscape in Halong at that time, populated with the small sailboats of fishermen, was no different from that of today. The very modern ship that the Governor General used now resides in the maritime museum.

The Ke Bao coal mines in Quang Ninh Province were exploited early by the French. France invested in modern equipment for the industry.
Hue was the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty at that time. In addition to the Citadel, the Governor General also took many photos of the landscapes in Hue in 1895.
In the early Nguyen Dynasty, Tuyen Quang was a town. This land was often unstable due to the penetration of bandits from China. At the end of the nineteenth century, the French built citadels and fences to obstruct bandits and wild beasts.
In the colonial period, the Nguyen government still had symbolic power in Thanh Nam-Nam Dinh.
The Cham towers are the architecture of the Cham people, which are distributed from Quang Nam to Binh Thuan. This photo was of the Cham towers in Nha Trang.
Until the late nineteenth century, the Vietnamese road system consisted mainly of narrow roads.

Before French colonial domination, Bien Hoa, then called Tran Bien, was the center of the entire southern region. When Armand Rousseau went to Vietnam, this place remained undeveloped. The photos of the communal house in Tan Uyen or the pagoda in Bien Hoa show the two typical religious beliefs of Vietnamese.

Phan Thiet was established as a town of Binh Thuan Province in 1899, but when Armand Rousseau came to Vietnam, this was a remote fishing area.
My Tho before 1899 was just a subdivision, not a province. At that time this land was home to migrant Chinese.
Before 1899, Tra Vinh was not a province but only a sub-region in the province of Vinh Long, with many Khmer people.

Tay Ninh is not far from Saigon but it is adjacent to Cambodia.

Con Dao was known to France very early. From 1862 it was used as a prison to detain political protesters and criminals.