Deluxe travel in old China by houseboat, Changde, Hunan, China, 1901

"Deluxe travel in old China, by houseboat. A group of missionaries returning to Changteh [now Changde] in 1901, among them the Logans. The child is EML [Elsa Logan]; the baby, VWL, aged only a few months, is inside in one of the several cabins. Note the owner or "laodah" on the poop, manning the tiller. Such a huge vessel was moved by fair wind or current. Failing these, sheer manpower had to be used: long sculls, or tracking by the crew, who hauled the boat by means of a rope attached to the mast - similar to towing by mulepower on the Erie Canal."; Captions for this set of lantern slides from the papers of Oliver and Jennie Logan, American Presbyterian missionaries in Hunan, were provided by their daughter Elsa