Former Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep (fouth from right) presents the album to National Archives Centre No. 3 on June 1. (Photo: baoquocte.vn) The album, titled “Technique du Peuple Annamite” (Technique of the Annamese people), was a gift from ethnologist Vu Thi Xuan Phuong presented via the Vietnamese Embassy in France.
Former Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Thiep handed over the collection to the centre.
This album was a result of fact-finding trips by Henri Oger, a researcher on Oriental cultures and a student of Louis Finot - the first director of the Hanoi-based French School of the Far East, in Hanoi and neighbouring areas while he was working for the French expeditionary force in Indochina in 1908 - 1909.
Gathering photos of all local industries in the early 20th century, the album was produced in around 1910 by using the traditional woodblock printing technique of Vietnamese people.
There are only four copies of this album left in the world at present, and they are currently kept at Vietnamese and French libraries.
At the presentation ceremony in Hanoi, Thiep also handed over some voice records about the Paris Peace Conference on the Vietnam War in 1973 provided by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs./.
VNA
