Julia Costello Collection: Donner Summit Chinese Railroad Camp, 1865-1869

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Summary

Title:
Julia Costello Collection: Donner Summit Chinese Railroad Camp
Dates:
1865-1869
Creators:
Costello Julia and Tuttle Jeff
Abstract:
Over a total of four days in 1983 and 1984, surface collections were made at the Donner Summit site by archaeologist Julia Costello and her husband Jeff Tuttle. This work camp, occupied between 1865 and 1869 by Chinese construction workers on the transcontinental railroad, was located using historic accounts, maps, and surface survey. In general, only Chinese artifacts were collected while Euro/American ceramics, glass, and metal were left in place.
Extent:
1.04 Linear Feet 1 Bankers Box
Language:
Chinese .
Preferred citation:

[Item], [Julia Costello Collection], Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The Costello Collection is organized by primary site (Donner Summit). The materials found from this work camp site contain fragments of bottles of medicine/alcohol, opium parapherealia, metal wok scraps, buttons, ceramic food storage containers, syringe, game pieces, and Euro-American ceramic. The collection contains different glazes and patterns on the Chinese ceramic materials such as Chinese Brown Glaze Stoneware, Double Happiness, Bamboo, Celadon (Wintergreen), and Four Seasons. This collection also consists of one whole projectile point.

Biographical / historical:

Julia Costello, Ph.D, is an archaeologist and co-owner of Foothill Resources, a historical consulting firm located in Calaveras County that works on projects throughout California. Specializing in the historic period, she has researched and published works on the Spanish Missions, mining sites, ninteenth-century life, and immigrant groups including Chinese, Italians, and Japanese. She served as Member and Chair of the California State Historical Resources Commmission, and on the boards of several national, state, and local history organizations.

Acquisition information:
Collection was donated to the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California by Julia Costello in the Fall of 2020.
Processing information:

In the Fall of 2020, Archaeologist Julia Costello donated her collection of Chinese work camp artifacts from Donner Summit to the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. As part of the CHSSC Archive's mission to pursue, preserve, and communicate knowledge of the history of Chinese Americans in Southern California, the Julia Costello Collection serves as a valuable addition for future researchers, scholars, and community members who are interested in learning more about the daily life in a Chinese work camp during the construction of the transcontinental railroad. The collection was catalogued by -- then Columbus University PhD student -- John Molenda as part of his dissertation research the "Costello Collection". In 2020 Scott Baxter borrowed the collection to study its contents, annotating the printed catalogue from Molenda with corrections and additional information. In preparation for submitting the collection to CHSSC, Julia Costello reexamined the artifacts incorporating Baxter's notes and further updated the Molenda catalogue, and generated a new Excel database (Appendix A). Intern, Justin Martin, began creating the finding aid in 2021, cross-referencing data on the Excel database and artifact catalogue to ensure accuracy when organizing the artifacts by series and subseries. With the help of Collections Manager, Coryn Hardison, and CHSSC Archaeologist, Linda Bentz, we decided to keep the collector's original artifact arrangement when organizing the finding aid as the the artifacts were collected and organized by provenience.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized into seven series: I Chinese Ceramics, Series II: Euro-American Ceramics, Series III: Opium Peraphenalia, Series IV: Personal Items, Series IV: Glass Items, Series VII: Miscellaneous Materials and Prehistoric. The collection has been primarily kept in the original collector's arrangement of artifact count, and is organized in the following series and subseries:

About this collection guide

Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2021-10-07 13:35:46 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open to researchers and for public access. Please contact the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California for more information.

Preferred citation:

[Item], [Julia Costello Collection], Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

Location of this collection:
411 and 415 Bernard Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012, US
Contact:
(323) 222-0856
info@chssc.org
Website