1796 · Engraving
View of the Great Wall of China near Gubeikou
Thomas Medland after William Alexander and Henry William Parish
Why it matters
The plate turns the embassy’s route into a legible landscape of walls, measurement, soldiers, and distance. Made for the official published account from other observers’ material, it helped a frontier monument stand for China as a whole.
- Publication
- Plate 24 in George Staunton’s official account of the Macartney Embassy
- Holding institution
- The British Museum
- Shelfmark
- 1871,0812.683
Medland, Thomas, after William Alexander and Henry William Parish. View of the Great Wall of China near Gubeikou, 1796. Engraving for George Staunton’s An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. The British Museum, 1871,0812.683.