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
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.