View source for Abel Gower

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
'''Abel Anthony James Gower''' (1836 in [[Livorno]], [[Italy]] &ndash; 1899?) was a British [[Consul (representative)|consul]] at two posts in Japan during the [[Late Tokugawa shogunate|Bakumatsu period]]: [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]] and [[Hakodate, Hokkaido|Hakodate]]. He was also an amateur photographer.

After experience in [[China]], Gower worked in the British legation at [[Tōzen-ji]], [[Edo]] (later [[Tokyo]]), as part of the staff of [[Rutherford Alcock]]. In 1863 he was involved in the [[bombardment of Kagoshima]]. In 1866 he became consul in Hakodate (in [[Ezo]], later [[Hokkaidō]]); he had previously been consul in Nagasaki (in [[Kyūshū]]).<ref>Nagasaki post from NFSRC web page; other information from ''Bakumatsu-ishin jinmei-jiten.''</ref>

For many years it was believed that either Gower or [[Walter B. Woodbury]] was commissioned by the London firm [[Negretti and Zambra]] to photograph China and Japan between 1857 and 1860. It is now known that [[Pierre Rossier]] was the photographer in question. The [[Leiden University]] photograph collection includes a portrait of Gower, signed "P. Rossier", and in 1859 Rossier and Gower shared passage on {{HMS|Sampson}} from Nagasaki to Edo.<ref>Bennett.</ref>

==Notes==
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==References==
* Bennett, Terry. [http://www.old-japan.co.uk/article_rossier.html Bennett, Terry. 'The Search for Rossier: Early Photographer of China and Japan'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207083857/http://www.old-japan.co.uk/article_rossier.html |date=7 December 2016 }}. Accessed 12 September 2006; cited above as "Bennett". Originally appeared in ''The PhotoHistorian-Journal of the Historical Group of  the Royal Photographic Society'', December 2004.
*''Bakumatsu-ishin jinmei-jiten'' ({{nihongo2|幕末維新人名事典}}, A biographical dictionary of the ''[[Late Tokugawa shogunate|Bakumatsu]]'' and [[Meiji Restoration|Meiji revitalization]]). Tokyo: Shinjinbutsujūraisha, 1994. {{ISBN|4-404-02063-5}}
*Nagasaki Foreign Settlement Research Group. "[http://www.nfs.nias.ac.jp/page027.html#Britcons British Consulate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514130124/http://www.nfs.nias.ac.jp/page027.html#Britcons |date=14 May 2011 }}." ''People, places and scenes from the Nagasaki foreign settlement, 1859&ndash;1941.''

==See also==
*[[British Japan Consular Service]]

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[[Category:1899 deaths]]
[[Category:British diplomats in East Asia]]
[[Category:British expatriates in Japan]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:British diplomats in China]]
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