In 1896, the French Catholic missionary Joseph-Marie Gaillard went to French colonial Vietnam, specifically the northern region then known to western Europe as Tonkin. This photo album includes a number of fascinating photographs capturing Gaillard’s journey through the region, along with images taken in France prior to his trip, 85 or so hand-colored commercial prints of Japan, and a series of plant pressings from gardens in Monte Carlo and the Vatican.

The album begins with fourteen pages packed with photographs of charming French scenes including views of the communes of Marvejols (Gaillard's hometown) and Rocamadour, the equestrian farm Le Mazel, and many group portraits of Gaillard’s family and fellow missionaries. The first image in Vietnam is a large view of a paddle boat above a handwritten caption “Yunnan: the boat that took me to upper Tonkin.” From there, the viewer is taken on a tour of the region, from Hong-Hoo to Yen Bai, Ha Thach to Ha Giang.

There are striking cyanotypes of cathedrals and pagodas in Hanoi, and a trio of photographs documenting the construction of the Son Tay Church, which is still standing today. In one portrait, Gaillard and another missionary are shown “with their Annamese teachers.” A two-page spread of cyanotypes shows a “Catholic procession,” “the mission’s buffalo,” “a snake charmer,” and “the Great Buddha,” all likely taken in Son Tay. Several photographs show a group of French Legionnaires, including one in which they “prepare their little fricot,” a French stew that combines onions, potatoes, and whatever meat you happen to have lying around. There are a number of photos showing the area’s Chinese influence, including one interesting portrait of a subject identified as the “Grand Mandarin.”

We see missionaries in traditional Vietnamese clothing and in “a village of lepers.” Gaillard’s work seems to have done a good deal of work with lepers. Numerous photographs show a leper community in Yen Tap, including a portrait of children and the chapel. In an article he wrote which appeared “Annals of the Propagation of the Faith,” a periodical collection of letters from bishops and missionaries around the world, Gaillard talks at length about the living conditions of lepers in Vietnam: "These poor disinherited people are in absolute misery and destitution." He notes that, of the 40 lepers being cared for at the mission in Yen Tap, all but three have been baptized.

The history of French colonialism and Catholic mission work in Indochina is, as one might expect, complex. The missionaries came first; the Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes is the first known Frenchman to have set foot in Vietnam, establishing a mission there in 1619. While the French government’s relationship with Vietnam was limited to trade throughout the 18th century, missionaries proved remarkably successful. Their success was such that local political powers began to see Catholicism as a threat. In the mid-1800s, the Nguyen dynasty began to expel Catholic missionaries, which compelled the French army to act, leading to the capture of Saigon in 1859. In 1862, France and Vietnam signed a treaty whose terms protected Catholicism in the country.

Gaillard’s trip to Vietnam came ten years after France first obtained official control over French Indochina as a result of the Sino-French War. The region comprised Cambodia, Laos, Guangzhouwan in China, and several regions of Vietnam, including Tonkin. The French would remain in control of the region until 1954. It is estimated that 7% of Vietnam’s population today is Catholic.