Oregon State Parks curator Christina Sweet reviews records donated to public radio with reporter Tom Banse
Photo Credit: Northwest News Network

Museums and Archives

The State of Oregon

Located in John Day, Oregon, the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site serves as a time capsule of Oregon’s early Chinese immigrants. In the late 1880’s Chinese businessman Lung On and herbal doctor Ing Hay immigrated to Oregon and became business partners. The structure from which they worked and lived is preserved just as they left it and contains the tools, herbs, artifacts and more that bring to light the legacy of the Chinese workforce in Oregon. In 2010 Lung On’s and Ing Hay’s stories were highlighted in an episode of Oregon Experience: Kam Wah Chung Oregon Experience Episode .

The Oregon Historical Society located in Portland, Oregon, and established in the early 20th century contains thousands of artifacts, photographs, maps, and documents. The research library’s photograph collection contains numerous images of Chinese immigrants from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Salem Pioneer Cemetery online database; search for "Ethnicity: Chinese." 

The Pacific Northwest Region and California

The Columbia River Basin Ethnic History Archive (CRBEHA): Chinese Americans in the Columbia River Basin is a contains materials from that document the history of the Columbia River Basin Area which includes territory in seven states (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah) and one Canadian province. The CRBEHA is a collaborative project of Washington State University Vancouver, the Idaho State Historical Society, Oregon Historical Society, Washington State Historical Society, and Washington State University Pullman.

The National Archives website has an extensive guide to the federal government’s relationship with China related to Chinese immigration: Chinese Immigration and the Chinese in the United States. The Pacific Northwest’s National Archives regional repository is located in Seattle, Washington, and documents the records of Federal Agencies located in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Montana.

California has a number of archives including the Bancroft Library and The Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley and The California Historical Library, San Francisco, that document the rich history of Chinese immigration to the state. As part of the Library of Congress American Memory Project they have created the Chinese in California, 1850-1925 digital collection available both through the Bancroft Library at Berkeley and the Library of Congress.