Finding Aid to Guenter B. Risse Research Files, 1853-1925 and 1963-2017, SFH 86
Finding aid prepared by Tami J. Suzuki.
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Sept. 19, 2023
Note
Finding aid originally covered Risse's plague book research. Revised in 2023 to include his pest house book and Chinese Hospital
article research.
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.
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours.
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.
[Identification of item], Guenter B. Risse Research Files, (SFH 86), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Gift of Guenter B. Risse in 2014 with additional materials received in 2016, 2017, and 2023.
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.
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.
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.
Risse, Guenter B. Personal Papers, Manuscript Collections, University of California, San Francisco.
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.
Boxes 1-2
Series 1. Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown Book, 1897-1905 and 1999-[2007]
Physical Description:
1.2 cubic feet
Contains research documents for Risse's book,
Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown,
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Included are Risse's daily notes about plague-related events in San Francisco; a log
with brief notes on plague articles from the
Chung Sai Yat Po;
translations of selected articles from the
Chung Sai Yat Po (Chinese Western Daily)
newspaper from 1900 to 1905; photocopies of the
Chung Sai Yat Po
and English-language newspaper articles; clinical and pathological information for each plague case as well as unpublished
correspondence between federal health officials of the Marine Hospital Service, also from 1900 to 1905 (from the National
Archives in Washington DC and College Park, Maryland); and documentation on the politics involved.
Under a 2007 grant awarded by the National Library of Medicine, a team of scholars and graduate students from the University
of California, Berkeley, created a log and summaries of plague-related articles published in the Chung Sai Yat Po. From these
summaries, Risse determined which articles would receive full translation. Materials received in 2017 included correspondence
and the grant application.
Box 3
Series 2. Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence Book, 1853-1924, 2012 and 2017
Physical Description:
1 cubic foot
Contains the research documents for Risse's book,
Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence,
University of Illinois Press, 2015. Included are his notes on English newspaper accounts and laws targeting the Chinese, photocopies
of articles from English newspapers, and a spreadsheet of relevant advertisements published in the
Chung Sai Yat Po (Chinese Western Daily).
Also includes an unpublished paper delivered April 28, 2012 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the History
of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, "Policies of Disgust, Stigma and Exclusion: The San Francisco Pesthouse;" and an unpublished lecture
delivered Jan. 6, 2017, "Grotesque Appearances: 'The Chinese Must Go,' Perceptions of Race and Revulsion in San Francisco's
Chinatown, 1849-1908."
Box 2
Series 3. Chinese Hospital Journal Article, 1896-1925 and 1963-2011
Physical Description:
3 folders
Contains materials for Risse's article, "Translating Western Modernity: The First Chinese Hospital in America," published
in the
Bulletin of the History of Medicine,
Johns Hopkins University Press, Fall 2011. Documents institutional efforts of the Chinese Hospital during the pre-plague period,
and early years until the post-earthquake situation. Includes Risse's notes, photocopies of English-language newspaper articles,
translations from Chinese-language newspapers, and Risse's journal article. Upon donating this collection, Risse encouraged
graduate students to continue and complete this subject study.