Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Bonner (Mitchell I.) photographs and ephemera
MS.SEA.006  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Processing History
  • Biography
  • Collection Scope and Content Summary
  • Collection Arrangement
  • Related Collections

  • Contributing Institution: Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
    Title: Mitchell I. Bonner photographs and ephemera
    Creator: Bonner, Mitchell I.
    Identifier/Call Number: MS.SEA.006
    Physical Description: 7.5 Linear Feet (10 boxes, 2 oversized folders 275 digitized images) and 4.2 unprocessed linear feet
    Date (inclusive): 1974-2021
    Abstract: 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.
    Language of Material: Collection materials are in English and several Southeast Asian languages, including Burmese, Lao, and Vietnamese.

    Access

    Processed components of the collection are open for research. Unprocessed additions may contain restricted materials. Please contact the Department of Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access.

    Publication Rights

    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.

    Preferred Citation

    Mitchell I. Bonner photographs and ephemera. MS-SEA006. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
    For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

    Acquisition Information

    Gifts of Mitchell I. Bonner, 1997-2022.

    Processing History

    Processed by Karen Rosen, 2002. Additions added by Zoe MacLeod, 2018, 2022.

    Biography

    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.
    Bonner has traveled to Laos four times, and has helped to organize various Laotian festivals and dances. He was a volunteer with the International Student Center in San Francisco until it closed at the end of 1976. Many Vietnamese refugee students used the center, which offered inexpensive cultural and recreational activities and a dining room for international students at San Francisco colleges and universities. It was there that Bonner met a Lao-Vietnamese man, who introduced him to the arriving Lao and Hmong refugees being settled into San Francisco. Bonner was also introduced to Southeast Asian refugees in the San Francisco neighborhood where he lived, which was the original receiving neighborhood in that city for Southeast Asian refugees. Bonner owns a personal Southeast Asia collection of over 3,000 items on Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, including books, audio and video recordings, documents and maps, and handicraft items.

    Collection Scope and Content Summary

    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 2014. 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.

    Collection Arrangement

    This collection is arranged in two series:
    • Series 1. Visual materials, 1975-2001. 2 linear feet
    • Series 2. Printed ephemera, 1976-2002. 2 linear feet
    The collection also contains six unprocessed additions:
    • Accession 2002.035. Unprocessed addition 2002-2006, 1980-2006 (Bulk, 2001-2002). 2 linear feet
    • Accession 2012.039. Unprocessed addition 2012, 2006-2012. 0.3 linear feet
    • Accession 2014.008. Unprocessed addition 2014, (1974, 1979, 2003-2014, Bulk 2011-2013). 0.5 linear feet
    • Accession 2018.031. Unprocessed addition 2018, (2011-2015). 0.4 linear feet
    • Accession 2019.038. Unprocessed addition 2019, (2018-2019). 0.4 linear feet
    • Unprocessed additions 2022, (2014-2021). 1.0 linear feet

    Related Collections

    This collection is supplemented by materials in the Southeast Asian Archive vertical file collection (MS-SEA020)  , Southeast Asian Archive, UC Irvine Libraries.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Laotian Americans - -California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Social life and customs -- Archives.
    Laotian Americans -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Social life and customs -- Photographs.
    Laotian Americans -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Photographs.
    Laotian Americans -- California - -San Francisco Bay Area -- Archives.
    San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- Archives.
    Refugees -- Southeast Asia -- Archives.
    Programs -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- 20th century.
    Photographic prints -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- 20th century.
    Southeast Asians -- Northwest, Pacific -- Archives.
    Southeast Asians -- Northwest, Pacific -- Photographs.
    Southeast Asians -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Social life and customs -- Archives.
    Southeast Asians -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Archives.
    Southeast Asians -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Photographs.
    Laotian Americans -- Northwest, Pacific -- Archives.
    Laotian Americans -- Northwest, Pacific -- Photographs.
    Refugees -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- Archives.
    Posters -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- 20th century.
    Fliers (Printed matter) -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- 20th century.
    Ephemera -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area -- 20th century.