Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid to Guenter B. Risse Research Files, 1853-1925 and 1963-2017, SFH 86
SFH 86  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Provenance
  • Biographical Note
  • Scope and Contents
  • Arrangement
  • Related Material
  • Processing Information

  • Contributing Institution: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
    Title: Guenter B. Risse Research Files
    Date (inclusive): 1853-1925 and 1963-2017
    Identifier/Call Number: SFH 86
    Creator: Risse, Guenter B.
    Physical Description: 2 cartons, 1 manuscripts box (2.4 cubic feet)
    Abstract: Contains research files of Dr. Guenter B. Risse for his books, Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown, and Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence, and journal article, "Translating Western Modernity: The First Chinese Hospital in America."
    Physical Location: Collection is stored on site.
    Language of Material: Collection materials are in English and Chinese.

    Access

    The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright for Guenter B. Risse's original documents retained by Risse until his passing. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Guenter B. Risse Research Files, (SFH 86), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

    Provenance

    Gift of Guenter B. Risse in 2014 with additional materials received in 2016, 2017, and 2023.

    Biographical Note

    Guenter B. Risse is a physician, historian, and professor emeritus of the history of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also an affiliate professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. Besides Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown and Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence, he authored Hospital Life in Enlightenment Scotland and Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals.

    Scope and Contents

    Contains the research files of Dr. Guenter B. Risse for his books, Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence, and journal article, "Translating Western Modernity: The First Chinese Hospital in America."
    The collection documents Risse's studies of San Francisco Chinatown during the plague years 1900-1905, and the larger plight of late-nineteenth-century Chinese migrants to San Francisco and into the twentieth century, focusing on healthcare policy. Included are photocopies of English- and Chinese-language newspapers, translations from Chinese-language newspapers, a spreadsheet of relevant advertisements published in the Chung Sai Yat Po (Chinese Western Daily), Risse's notes on the newspaper accounts and laws targeting the Chinese, his Chinese Hospital article, and two of his unpublished papers delivered at conferences. His writing sheds light on local political, economic, and cultural contests amidst an environment of racial discrimination and political power struggles, as well as deep social and cultural divisions during the early twentieth-century plague epidemic.

    Arrangement

    Organized into three series: Series 1. Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown Book; Series 2. Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence Book; and Series 3. Chinese Hospital Article.
    Within series, arranged chronologically.

    Related Material

    Risse, Guenter B. Personal Papers, Manuscript Collections, University of California, San Francisco.

    Processing Information

    Processed by Tami J. Suzuki.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Chinese Americans -- California -- Newspapers.
    Chinese Americans -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- 20th century.
    Chinese -- Health and hygiene -- Social aspects -- California -- San Francisco -- History.
    Chinese Hospital -- History.
    Plague -- California -- San Francisco -- History.
    Quarantine -- California -- San Francisco -- History.