Tarita Foundation

Picturing Chinese America

Between 1866 and 1931, photographs of Chinese people in America were made by commercial studios, railroad companies and wire services, and sold to a national audience that was, over those same years, arguing about whether Chinese people should be allowed into the country at all. By the Second World War the same audience was being handed posters, magazine covers, a comic book and postcards asking it to see China as a friend. This archive catalogues 37 such objects. Each one is recorded twice: as a picture, and as a printed caption written by someone else.

37 objects · 43 photographs · 1866–1944 · from the collection of the Dehuai Foundation for Historical Images · version 0.2 (second accession)