Striking large-format silver gelatin photograph by C.A. Killie, documenting the British Legation compound in Peking (Beijing) immediately following the 1900 Boxer Rebellion siege. The print, measuring 7½" x 9" on an original 9¼" x 11¼" mount, shows the double-story building fortified with sandbags stacked tightly across every window and arcade opening. Handwritten across the top: "Siege of Peking, British – Sandbagged building."

The verso features a detailed period caption: “British Legation during and after siege. Used after siege for Captain Poole’s commissary department. A loft shown for Boxers' clothing. Gym used for a bicycle station after relief came. In left-hand corner is the guard gate, one can way [sic] be seen.”

The foreground teems with motion as Chinese civilians and workers pass by the fortification, while a Western-style cart and scattered debris speak to the prolonged state of disruption. The photo is clearly attributed at lower left: “Copyrights applied for by C.A. Killie, Peking.”

Killie was one of a small number of Western photographers in China at the turn of the century, and his firsthand documentation of the Boxer Uprising siege—especially within the foreign legation quarter—is of critical historical and visual value.

An exceptional visual record of colonial defense architecture improvised under siege conditions, and a key artifact of both imperial presence and resistance during one of the defining crises of modern Chinese history.