Still another, about a man operating a hand mill to grind soybeans, talks about how important soybeans are to Chinese as a source of protein, fat and calories, calling it "poor man's meat and poor man's milk".

There is a vivid scene of Chinese peasants working in rice paddies, and another showing the ruins in Shanghai's Zhabei area following an attack in January 1932 by the Japanese Imperial Army.

All of the photos were made by the Keystone View Co, a major distributor of stereographic images in the old days.

Richard Garrison did not remember seeing the photos as a child. "I think she must have kept them because she enjoyed looking at them," he said of his mother.

Stella Garrison, who first became a teacher in a country school near Tecumseh, Nebraska, about 70 miles south of Omaha, and then at schools in other parts of Nebraska, had the photos for decades after she had got them from the state superintendent's office.

She and her husband finally got to visit Asia in the mid 1980s, a trip that took them to Beijing, Hong Kong and Thailand.

"My mother said she was surprised, shocked and pleased when my father said, 'Let's go to China,' " Richard Garrison recalled. "They enjoyed it."

The parents took a side trip to visit a Chinese school. They also told Richard how intensive agriculture is in China.

"Every part of the land is used, nothing seems to be wasted," was how Richard recalled his mother's words.