Asian American Studies

"The Chinese Historical Society of Southern California Collection documents artifacts systematically excavated from two sites in Southern California. The first site is represented by about 1,040 color images of artifacts from the original Los Angeles Chinatown; an additional 150 images document artifacts from the site of a Chinese laundry in Santa Barbara. These two artifact collections are among the largest and best documented assemblage of cultural materials on Chinese settlement in the United States."

This page provides a list of primary sources and other resources relevant to the Chinese Exclusion Act. Types of sources include digital collections, newspapers, prints, photographs, external websites, and a selected bibliography.

Lists a topic-focused selection of primary sources collected by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Records include finding aids and microfilm descriptions related to the topic "Chinese Heritage."

Includes the finding aid for the FBI case file related to Grace Lee Boggs, listed as Classification 157. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) established Classification 157 (Civil Unrest) on January 23, 1959 and initially called it 'Racial Matters/Bombing Matters.' Beginning in the late 1960s, the FBI started to investigate the roles of the Black Panthers and Black Nationalist movements."

"The Densho Archives contain primary sources that document the Japanese American experience from immigration in the early 1900s through redress in the 1980s, with a strong focus on World War II incarceration. The archives are growing as Densho continues to collect oral histories, images, and records."

"The Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA) contains thousands of primary sources documenting Japanese American internment, including: Personal diaries, letters, photographs, and drawings; US War Relocation Authority materials, including camp newsletters, final reports, photographs, and other documents relating to the day-to-day administration of the camps; And personal histories documenting the lives of the people who lived in the camps, as well as of the administrators who created and worked there."

"Produced by the Japanese-Americans interned at assembly centers and relocation centers around the country during World War II, these newspapers provide a unique look into the daily lives of the people who were held in these camps. They include articles written in English and Japanese, typed, handwritten and drawn. They advertise community events, provide logistical information about the camps and relocation, report on news from the community, and include editorials. Included in this collection are 29 newspaper titles (in English, Japanese, or both) from camps in seven states."

"In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America's most well-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans interned there during World War II. . Although a majority of the more than 200 photographs are portraits, the images also include views of daily life, agricultural scenes, and sports and leisure activities."

"The Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection is currently the world’s largest online archive of open-access, full image Japanese American and other overseas Japanese newspapers in Asia and South America. Image content in this collection is accompanied by OCR-generated text where possible, thus rendering the text searchable. The holdings of each title are browsable by date, title, and publication place, with each title cross searchable with other titles on the platform. The nature of the newspapers varies significantly from community-focused to political or military propaganda depending on the political conditions and target readership."

"The Korean American Digital Archive brings more than 13,000 pages of documents, over 1,900 photographs, and about 180 sound files together in one searchable collection that documents the Korean American community during the period of resistance to Japanese rule in Korea and reveal the organizational and private experience of Koreans in America between 1903 and 1965. The components of the Korean American Digital Archive include: Documents of the KNA Building, Korean American Archive Photograph Set, Korean American Museum Oral History Series, Korean American Private Records, Korean Heritage Library Subject Files, and The Reverend Soon Hyun Collected Works."

"The UCI Libraries Southeast Asian Archive collects, preserves, and makes accessible primary and secondary source materials documenting the history of the Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese diaspora. Collection strengths include Southeast Asian American experiences of resettlement and community formations since the Vietnam War, Cambodian Genocide, and geopolitical turmoil in the former French-occupied "Indochina" in the latter half of the 20th century."

"SEAAdoc is an educational resource of the Southeast Asian Archive at the UC Irvine Libraries focusing on post-1975 refugees and immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam and the communities they have developed in the United States. It contains 1,500 visual images and 4,000 pages of searchable text selected from the Archive to represent a cross section of our holdings. SEAAdoc documents the exodus of Southeast Asian refugees and immigrants from their homelands, their experiences in Asian refugee camps, and subsequent resettlement in the United States. Other materials reveal cultural, economic, educational, political, and social aspects of the new Southeast Asian American communities that have developed, and continue to grow, in the United States."

"Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project at the University of California, Irvine actively assembles, preserves, and disseminates the life stories of Vietnamese Americans in Southern California. The project contributes to expanding archives on Vietnamese Americans with the primary goal of capturing first generation stories for students, researchers, and the community. These recorded life stories (audio and video) include Vietnamese and/or English-language transcripts of the interviews, brief summaries, time logs, and photographs of narrators. Some narrators have also contributed additional materials such as their own photographs and documents to be preserved with their stories."

"The Filipino American Library Collection consists of materials owned by the Filipino American Library in Historic Filipinotown that were transferred to the University of Southern California Special Collections in 2017. Items selected by affiliates of the FAL to be made digitally available include lantern slides, bound volumes, photographic prints, maps, and loose printed materials that all reveal the Filipino American experience spanning life in the Philippines, contributions by Filipino Americans in the World War II effort, and the acculturation and growth of the Filipino American community in Southern California. Materials are written in English, Tagalog, and Ilocano."

"The Watsonville is in the Heart digital archive preserves and uplifts the stories of the “manong” generation (Ilokano/Tagalog for "older brother"), the first wave of Filipino migrant farmworkers to arrive in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Focused on the pioneering families of Watsonville and the greater Pajaro Valley, the archive enshrines the manongs’ and their descendents’ memories of migration, labor, leisure, and community formation. The digital archive includes oral histories, family photographs, family heirlooms, letters and correspondences, and newspaper clippings."

"The Welga Digital Archive - Bulosan Center for Filipino American Studies focuses on preserving and presenting the broad aspects of the Filipino American experience."

"SAADA is a community-based culture change organization ensuring that South Asian Americans are included in the American story: past, present, and future. It is he largest publicly accessible collection of South Asian American stories with over 4,500 items."

"This archive offers a window into the story of South Asian immigrants from the Punjab region in north India to California since the turn of the twentieth century. Explore over 700 video interviews, speeches, diaries, photographs, articles, and letters in which Punjabi Americans share their life stories, values, and contributions to California’s history over the last hundred and twenty years"

"The Center for Oral History (COH), in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, collects, documents, preserves and highlights the recollections of Native Hawaiians and the multi-ethnic people of Hawaiʻi. It produces oral histories and interpretive historical materials about lifeways, key historic events, social movements and Hawaiʻi’s role in the globalizing world, for the widest possible use."

"Bishop Museum’s Library & Archives have one of the richest and most varied collections of published works and primary source materials related to Hawai‘i and the Pacific. Library holdings include rare books, periodicals, newspapers, and special collections of published material. The Museum’s Archives hold the results of studies done by Museum staff in various disciplines throughout the Pacific, as well diverse collections of manuscripts, photographs, artwork, oral histories, sound recordings, and maps."

"The South Pacific Islands Web Archive covers the following twenty islands/countries: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The collection complements the print materials from the South Pacific Islands that the Library currently holds which consist of government and official publications and data from these regions." Coverage dates: February 2017 to present.

"A division within the Department of Accounting and General Services, the Hawai‘i State Archives’ mission is to ensure open government by preserving and making accessible the historic records of state government and to partner with state agencies to manage their active and inactive records."