Charming and rare early 20th-century portrait of six Chinese schoolgirls posed with autoharps and books in a formal studio setting, identified in the handwritten inscription as the "Auto Harp Class of Tientsin School Girls." The studio photograph measures 5 1/4" X 7 1/2" and is printed on glossy silver gelatin paper, mounted to a beautifully embossed and color-tinted board measuring approximately 9" x 11", with the gold-stamped imprint of Chung-Yu, a professional photography studio active in Tientsin (Tianjin), China.

The image captures the girls standing around a table, some reading, others holding autoharps—a detail that suggests Western-style music instruction in a missionary or modern girls’ school. A small potted plant with flags adds a symbolic visual flourish. The elegant interior backdrop, complete with classical columns and patterned curtains, reflects both the aspirations and staged formalities of elite or missionary-run Chinese schools during this transitional period.

On the verso, the names of the students are handwritten: Susan Hsü, Annie Chung, Mildred Leung, Mary Lim, Katherine Chen, and Isabel Yang. These names—some in romanized Chinese—offer strong clues to the students' bicultural upbringing and educational background, likely in a missionary or treaty-port school environment that emphasized Western music and English literacy.

A beautifully composed and unusually personal piece of Chinese educational history, capturing both cultural hybridity and early women's education in Republican-era China.