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With a gift from Ameritech in 1996, the Library of Congress sponsored a
three-year competition ending in 1999 to enable public, research, and
academic libraries, museums, historical societies, and archival
institutions (except federal institutions) to create digital collections of
primary resources. These digital collections will complement and enhance
the collections of the National Digital Library Program at the Library of
Congress. The Chinese in California 1850-1925 is the last of twenty-three
collections coming from the LC/Ameritech competition. This collection can
be found at <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml/>.
The Chinese in California 1850-1925 illustrates nineteenth and early
twentieth century Chinese immigration to California from 1850 to 1925
through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials. Included
are photographs, original art, cartoons and other illustrations; letters,
excerpts from diaries, business records, and legal documents; as well as
pamphlets, broadsides, speeches, sheet music, and other printed matter.
These documents describe the experiences of Chinese immigrants in
California, including the nature of inter-ethnic tensions. They also
document the specific contributions of Chinese immigrants to commerce and
business, architecture and art, agriculture and other industries, and
cultural and social life in California. Chinatown in San Francisco receives
special treatment as the oldest and largest community of Chinese in the
United States. Also included is documentation of smaller Chinese
communities throughout
California, as well as material reflecting on the experiences of
individuals. Although necessarily selective, such a large body of materials
presents a full spectrum of representation and opinion. The materials in
this online compilation are drawn from collections at The Bancroft Library,
University of California Berkeley; The Ethnic Studies Library, University
of California Berkeley; and The California Historical Society, San Francisco.
Those interested in learning about the Ameritech competition, the awards
made in each of the three years of the competition, and the guidelines that
were given to applicants can locate the information at the following url:
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award/index.html>.