Thomas Bradley Harris - Photo album

      Thomas Bradley Harris was born in New York City in 1826. He started
      business as a ships' chandler at South Street and Maiden Lane, the
      location of his father's store since 1805. Later Thomas was in partnership
      with Nathan Gillette Pond. Among other things Harris & Pond exported large
      quantities of butter to Hong Kong. In 1862 Harris went out to Hong Kong to
      manage that end of the business. His wife Sarah and the children moved to
      Walton, New York. Her father was a native of Walton and had returned there
      in 1857 after his retirement from business in New York City.
      While in the East, Harris, together with Joseph William Torrey and Tat
      Chong, formed the American Trading Company of Borneo for the purpose of
      establishing a colony and developing the resources of that country. Harris
      died at Ellena, Kimanis River, Borneo, a few weeks after he arrived there
      to manage American Trading Company's colony.
      This web site documents the photo album which Harris carried with him in
      Asia. It contains pictures of his family and associates in New York City
      and his contacts in Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Shanghai. After Harris died
      the album was sent home, and his wife Sarah added pictures of her family
      and associates in NewYork City and Walton. Apparently, additional photos
      were sent to Sarah from the East as well. Photographs in the album date
      from about 1860 to about 1880.
      The documented provenance of the affects of Thomas Bradley Harris is as
      follows: his wife Sarah Louisa (Seymour) Harris, their daughter Sarah
      Bennet (Harris) Sawyer, her son John Harris Sawyer, and his children
      Gertrude Marian (Sawyer) Cobb and Harris Tooker Sawyer (who died in 1995).

      Most of the photographs were identified in the album, and those annotations
      are shown directly below the photos. Additional information has been added
      for many persons, and it is enclosed in brackets [ ]. Women's maiden names
      are enclosed in parentheses( ). Not all photos could be identified with
      certainty; the words probably, possibly, and perhaps are used to express
      degrees of uncertainty. Anyone having corrections or further information about
      people photographed is invited to contact the author of this introduction.

      Lois Fonseca

      A few notes about information added to the photos.

      Information directly below the photos is information taken from the album.
      In the album these annotations can be found mostly below the photos and in
      other cases besides the photos.

      Information between [ ] and ending with the character Ą is added by myself.

      In some cases the information from the album might be corrected for there is
      some uncertainty about a part of the name.

      I want to thank Lois for supplying such a wealth of information.

      I will forward your corrections and additional biographical information to Lois.
      If you agree, all received information will be added to this site and you will be
      credited as the source.

      Jan van der Wal
      Almelo, The Netherlands