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Chinese
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Related Resources Source
Material Found in U.S. Government Agencies
As
I searched the Net for information about the Chinese immigrating to
America during the nineteenth century, I received many hits indicating
information pertaining to this subject could be found within government
agencies. One of the most
helpful agencies was The Library of
Congress (LOC). One of
the best websites about Chinese immigration, The
Chinese in California, 1850-1925, is part of the Library’s American
Memory collection. Created
in conjunction with the University of California, Berkeley and the
California Historical Society, it illuminates the Chinese experience in
America through over 8000 images and primary materials.
The collection contains photographs, art, cartoons, diary
entries, pamphlets, business records, broadsides, legal documents, and
letters. All of these
materials highlight the Chinese experience, including the friction
between the Chinese and other ethnic groups.
Also prominent in the collection are the contributions the
Chinese made to American society in areas such as agriculture and other
industries, art and architecture, and culture in general.[1]
This is, perhaps, the most complete collection dedicated to
Chinese immigration online. The website is extremely simple to navigate, offering various
ways to search including: keyword, subject, name, title, group, and
theme. The Chinese in
California also included a special feature in which the user can search
for more basic information sorted by specific topics.
Related to The Chinese in California website is another site
within the LOC’s American Memory collection, California
As I Saw It: First Person Narratives of California's Early Years.
This collection is filled with first person accounts from the
Gold Rush to the turn of the twentieth century.
There are two particularly useful accounts discussing the Chinese
in the Golden State. One of
these accounts is part of Mary Cone’s Two
Years in California, the other is Harris Newmark’s reminiscences Sixty
Years in Southern California, 1853-1913.
Two other American Memory websites of interest include Photographs
from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933, displaying pictures of a
vibrant Chinese community in Chicago, and Before
and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco,
1897-1916, showing footage of Chinese communities in San Francisco. The
Library of Congress’s Learning Page
also designed an excellent website for the study of Chinese in America.
They created The
Rise of Industrial America, 1876-1900.
This teacher’s aid includes pages discussing Chinese
Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900 and simply Immigration
to the United States, 1851-1900.
Both of these pages include links to excellent primary source
documents. Other sources
featured by the Library of Congress including information about Chinese
immigration are the Arnold
Genthe Collection and their extensive newspaper collection.
The Genthe Collection is part of the LOC’s Prints and
Photographs Division and contains photographs of late nineteenth and
early twentieth century San Francisco Chinatown.
The newspaper collection can be searched online, but none of the
pages have actually been digitized.
Recommended papers to search are the San Francisco Chronicle, the
San Francisco Examiner, the New York Post, and New York Times.
Another
excellent government agency with a great deal of information on Chinese
immigration is the National Archives
and Records Administration (NARA).
The National Archives published a finding aid entitled Chinese
Immigration and the Chinese in the United States, and its contents
are online. This web page
gives a brief description of the history of Chinese immigration. It also describes what records researchers can find regarding
this subject within all of the Archives’ branches. In conjunction with the National Archives the Institute
of Business and Economic Research (IBER) at Berkeley created a
database for searching case files for early Chinese immigrants into
Hawaii and San Francisco. Users
can only search the database; if they wish to view the records they need
to visit NARA's
Pacific Region. Researchers
can also conduct a search of NARA’s Microfilm
Catalog to determine what microfilm publications exist.
The
National Archives also publishes an historical magazine called Prologue.
Researchers can search current and past issues of the magazine
online. If “Chinese
immigrants” is entered as a search term, researchers will find an
article written in the summer 1998 issue entitled “Angel Island:
Guardian to the Western Gate.” This
article is not online, however the researcher is made aware of its
existence and can find it in the library.
Other articles are online and include: "The
Voyage of the 'Coolie' Ship Kate Hooper, October 3, 1857-March 26,
1858" and "The
Ears Have It: A Web Research Tool for Investigation Case Files from the
Chinese Exclusion Era". As
mentioned previously the Library of Congress and the National Archives
have proven to be the best government agencies for researching Chinese
immigration, but there are two others that are also helpful.
The first is the United States
Citizenship and Immigration Service.
This site takes the user to an excellent article about Chinese
exclusion, immigration statistics, information on Chinese letters
received between 1898 and 1913, Chinese immigrant files, and the
President’s request for the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Acts.
Secondly, the Bureau of the
Census features social, demographic, and economic data about
particular immigrant groups, as well as immigrant statistics. Academic
Institutions
Multiple
academic institutions have created searchable databases and other online
materials researchers can utilize to find information about the Chinese
experience in America. The
University of Kansas has two resources that are extremely useful.
The
University of Kansas East Asian Library's History of Chinese
Immigration section contains links to places where researchers can find
more information. Some
examples include links to the National Archives, INS Case Files, and the
Chinese American History Timeline.
The University of Kansas also has the World
Wide Web Virtual Library (WWW-VL).
By searching the history section of WWW-VL and choosing the
chronological period The
Gilded Age, 1876-1900, one can find many great primary sources about
the Chinese during this period. Some
primary sources are the Chinese Exclusion Act, The Rock Springs
Anti-Chinese Riot, and transcript to the Yick Wo v. Hopkins case.
There are also links to nineteenth century periodical articles
such as “The Anti-Chinese Hysteria of 1885-86” and “Anti-Chinese
Riot in Seattle.” Searching
Making
of America at Cornell University, a digital library of primary
sources, will yield yet another nineteenth century journal article
called “The Exclusion of the Chinese”, written and published in 1884
by the North American Review. The
Internet
Modern History Sourcebook, created by Fordham University, offers
researchers links to United States immigration and its effects, as well
as links to primary source documents and photos about Asian-American
immigrants online. The Digital
History website at the University of Houston serves much the same
purpose, but also contains an Immigration Documents page with links to
primary sources. However,
most, if not all, of these documents are the same as those contained in
the Rise of Industrial America website posted by the Library of
Congress. The City
University of New York offers researchers WestWeb.
“The Golden Mountain: Asian Americans in the West” section of
the site includes links to primary and secondary sources, as well as
links to other sites researchers may find useful.
A search on George Mason University’s History
Matters site under “Chinese immigrants” yields nine hits to
primary sources largely related to those who supported Chinese exclusion
and those against it. Angel
Island Poetry, produced by the University of Illinois, discusses
Chinese experiences at the Angel Island immigration station. This site includes photos, an Asian-American history
timeline, poems from Angel Island, the text of the Exclusion Act, and a
history of Angel Island. Much
like the University of Kansas’s resources mentioned previously, the
Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California, Berkeley has an Asian-American
Studies Collection. One
of this collection’s strengths is Chinese-Americans, and can be
searched through MELVYL, the
online catalog for the University of California.
This collection contains monographs, theses and dissertations,
student research papers, conference papers, and non-print media from
1846 forward. This library
also houses the Chinese-American Research Collection.
None of the sources are actually online; you can only use the
Internet to search the contents of this collection.
Finally, Arizona State’s Immigration
Intranet offers links to many excellent immigration studies
resources, and the University of Minnesota’s Immigration
History Research Center is one of the premier research facilities
for immigration history and related studies.
Other
Institutions, Societies, Organizations, and Foundations There
are many organizations, institutions, societies, and foundations on the
World Wide Web that are dedicated to the study of Chinese immigration to
the United States, or have information regarding this topic.
One of these organizations, PBS, posted New
Perspectives on the West with a section called the “Archives of
the West from 1877-1887,” which includes primary source material about
anti-Chinese immigration policy, primarily the Chinese Exclusion Act.
The PBS website also includes the Chinatown
Resource Guide, discussing the history of Chintatowns, and Becoming
American: The Chinese Experience, which contains eyewitness accounts
and an excellent timeline. The
California Historical Society has an excellent manuscript and photo
collection, but nothing is online.
You can search their collection through MELVYL
or The Online Archive of California.
By searching the online catalog of the San
Francisco Public Library one finds a collection of nineteenth
century books, including Senate reports and Senate testimonies from the
California State Legislature. The
San Francisco History Center is also located at this library and would
probably have a useful collection, however researchers need go to the
physical location. Researchers
can browse the collection of the California
State Archives and discover items pertinent to Chinese immigration
such as the California State Constitutions, legislative materials, and
California Supreme and Appellate Court cases.
By going to the website created by the Chinese
Historical Society of America (CHSA) users can search the contents
of their journal Chinese America: History and Perspectives.
Their Learning Center also provides information and excellent
resources for teachers about the gold rush, railroads, and Angel Island.
CHSA provides a list of excellent resources that can be found
both off and online. The
Alice Phelean Library located at the headquarters for the Society
of California Pioneers contains biographies, manuscripts,
reminiscences, autobiographies, diaries, and nineteenth century
newspapers that all include information about Chinese immigrants.
Their archive holds the papers of Elliot Evans who provided a
comprehensive history of Angel Island.
They also have an extensive photo collection related to the San
Francisco and Central Pacific Railroads where thousands of Chinese
toiled. For different
perspectives on Chinese immigration go to the Chinese
Historical Society of New England to discover what Chinese
immigrants were doing in the East, or visit The
Chinese Students Memorial Society, which discusses a school that
accepted Chinese students during a time of rampant anti-Chinese
sentiment. The Immigration and Ethnic
History Society contributes links researchers will find useful for
pursuing immigration history. Separate
Lives, Broken Dreams, an online archive created by the National
Asian American Telecommunications Association, is an excellent resource
for determining what life was like in America for Chinese immigrants.
It also highlights what exclusion was and what it meant to live
in the United States with these policies.
This site includes links to primary source materials about these
subjects. Both the American
Immigration Law Foundation’s American
Heritage Project and the Commission
for Asian Pacific American Affairs provide brief histories about the
Chinese coming to the United States.
The Angel Island
Immigration Station Foundation (ISF) displays pictorial histories of
over a dozen topics relating to the Chinese in America.
Researchers can also search the catalog of the Gilder
Lehrman Institute of American History.
By using the keywords “Chinese immigrants,” users find the
collection includes: Presidential pardons for those violating the
Immigration Act, the treaty approved by Andrew Johnson allowing free
immigration with China, pamphlets about immigration to the United States
in 1856 and about Chinatown being a nuisance in 1880, as well as a
letter signed by Abraham Lincoln authorizing Anson Burlingame to
negotiate a treaty with the Chinese government.
The Chinese Historical and
Cultural Project advertises a book on their site that is useful to
those researching Chinese immigration called Golden Legacy.
It discusses immigration, Chinatowns, railroads, mining,
agriculture, and daily life. The
Balch Institute, which prides itself
on immigration studies, also offers an online exhibit entitled Building
the Gold Mountain. Museums
There
are numerous museums with online information about Chinese immigration,
either in the exhibits they display or within their collections.
One of the best museums is The
Virtual Museum of San Francisco.
Since this museum is virtual everything is online.
It has an excellent subject index, and by going to the Chinese
section, a wealth of information covering many facets of Chinese
immigration, including primary materials, can be found.
Another invaluable museum is the Central
Pacific Railroad Photography Museum.
This museum has an excellent exhibit about Chinese contributions
to the Transcontinental Railroad. It includes links to multiple
histories discussing various aspects of Chinese immigration, as well as
links to more primary sources. The
Smithsonian Program for Asian Pacific American Studies placed an exhibit
online called On Gold
Mountain. The exhibit
is based on a book written by Lisa See and displays pictures and
information about the Chinese-American experience.
The Wyoming State Historical Society’s Museum, the Chinese
Joss House Museum addresses the Chinese who lived in Evanston,
Wyoming. Online, you can
search Annals of Wyoming: The Wyoming History Journal and find it
includes information on Chinese immigrants.
If researchers visit the museum itself, they can search their
collection of photographs and documents.
New York City’s Museum
of Chinese in the Americas maintains an extensive collection of
primary sources related to Chinese-American history and culture,
including oral histories, photos, and various artifacts.
Searching the library
catalog for the San
Francisco Maritime National Historic Park will also lead researchers
to a number of resources, mostly secondary. Other
Many
resources on the Internet did not fit into a clean-cut category are
listed within this section. There
are a number of periodicals or periodical databases that generate
information about Chinese immigration.
Harpweek
presents Immigrant and Ethnic America with a section specifically on
Chinese immigration called “The Chinese American Experience,
1857-1892.” This site
draws on materials from Harper’s Weekly and describes the Chinese
experience from culture to the anti-Chinese movement to politics.
The Journal of American History also exists online. In order to view articles online within the Ingenta
Database a membership is required, however those without a
membership can review the contents of the journal.
There are sixteen issues available online from 1999-2003.
The Humanities Index, JSTOR, Project Muse, and America: History
and Life are all databases that will link users to articles and
abstracts about Chinese immigration online, and the American Periodical
Series will connect researches to various nineteenth century
periodicals. All of these
can be accessed through the American
University Library. Archives
USA also links users to various collections that contain information
about Chinese immigrants. Other
resources include simple timelines, which are excellent since they
provide links to other sites explaining the major events or connect
researchers to primary sources. These
can be found at the Chinese
American History Timeline and San
Francisco Chinatown.com. The
text of the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943 is on the Ancestors
in the Americas site, and a very different twist to information
about Chinese immigrants is discussed within Chinese
in the Civil War, recommended by the Chinese Historical Society of
America. [1] The Chinese in California, 1850-1925. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml/cichome.html (20 November 2003).
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Created by Jaime Boyle Last Updated 12/06/03 |
