Description
This collection comprises approximately
3,000 photographs and slides taken by Mitchell Bonner between 1975 and 2001, as well as
printed ephemera collected by him through 2015. The images document Iu Mien, Lao, Khmer,
Vietnamese, and Cambodian community social and cultural events throughout Northern
California, primarily the San Francisco Bay area. The emphasis is on Laotian American
communities. The ephemera includes programs, posters and flyers from cultural, religious,
and popular culture events, refugee publications, pamphlets and brochures from refugee
assistance agencies, and other materials related to social services, education, and
refugees. The collection also includes a small amount of material documenting other Asian
American communities in California, including Burmese, Thai, Filipino, and
Tibetan.
Background
Mitchell I. Bonner has been active in the San Francisco Bay area's Southeast Asian American
communities since 1975, when the first Lao and Hmong refugees moved to the area. Over the
years Bonner has documented both daily life and special community events, through
photographing private and public activities in the Southeast Asian community. His
photographs include images dating from a 1975 Christmas party for Vietnamese refugees at San
Francisco's International Student Center, to a 2000 Laos New Year's celebration in Richmond,
California.
Restrictions
Property rights reside with the University of California. Copyrights are retained by the
creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please
contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.