Chinese Business Documents, Records, and Publications, 1879-1933

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Summary

Abstract:
This collection includes correspondence, receipts, ledgers, and other bound volumes that afford insights into commerce among members of California's Chinese community in San Joaquin and Yuba Counties during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also contains a Chinese dictionary and a fortune telling book.
Extent:
2 boxes
Language:
Records written in
Preferred citation:

Preferred citation: [Item name], Chinese Business Documents, Records, and Publications, Ms91, San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum, Lodi, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection is divided into three series: (1) Correspondence, Statements, and Receipts, (2) Unpublished Bound Volumes, and (3) Publications. Written in Chinese characters, the material spans a period from 1879 to 1933 and offers insights into activities of members of the Chinese community scattered from San Joaquin and Yuba Counties, in California, to the State of Washington. Subjects covered in the material include grocery sales, gambling, and prostitution.

Biographical / historical:

The Chinese presence in California dates back to the eighteenth century, but not until the era of California's Gold Rush did it include significant numbers. Overwhelmingly male and attracted by economic opportunities, those who arrived in the nineteenth century made their most visible marks as laborers in the gold fields, on railroads, and in agriculture. Others operated businesses that catered to the preferences of the Chinese community, which maintained its distinctiveness in the face of racism, ostricism, and discrimination embedded in white society and the legal structure of California and the United States.

Physical location:
Erickson Vault

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research by appointment.

Terms of access:

The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary property.

Preferred citation:

Preferred citation: [Item name], Chinese Business Documents, Records, and Publications, Ms91, San Joaquin County Historical Society and Museum, Lodi, California.

Location of this collection:
11793 North Micke Grove Road
Lodi, CA 95241, US
Contact:
(209) 331-2055
info@sanjoaquinhistory.org
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