Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
Lily Lee Chen: the First Chinese American Woman Mayor by Chang C. Chen
- Description
- The collection is comprised of personal and professional papers of Lily Chen that deal with her personal life and document her 50-year career of service to her community. The papers highlight her social work with Los Angeles County, her campaign for and tenure on the Monterey Park City Council and as Mayor, and her activities with the Democratic Party, and her activism. The collection contains correspondence, personal diaries and journals, education and employment documents, travel and immigration records, fliers, political campaign material, newspaper and magazine clippings, personal notes, speeches, ephemera, photographs, and photograph albums. The personal papers consist of correspondence by family members and friends, much of it coming from China; immigration papers for Chen family members; material about Chen's education and employment, her work with Voice of Free China, and her time in the United States attending the World Youth Social Welfare Conference in 1956; and a large subseries of personal photographs. There are also three published biographies of Lily Chen. Also included are correspondence and other writings by Paul Chen, his father Chieh Ching Chen, and Lily Chen's father Yaolin Li. The professional papers deal with Lily Chen's campaign for Monterey Park city council and mayorship; her work against a petition in Monterey Park to declare English the official language of the city; the push-back against the use of malathion in Medfly spraying in Los Angeles County in the 1980s; Chen's attendance at the Democratic National Convention in 1996 and 2000; her efforts to bring an Olympic event to Monterey Park during the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles; and the Red Cross relief work after the Taiwan earthquake in 1999. There is also material related to, and some material written by several California and national Democratic leaders such as Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Walter F. Mondale, Tom Bradley, Gil Garcetti, Gray Davis, Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Al Glore, Jimmy Carter, Kenneth Hahn, Ed Edelman, Geraldine Ferraro, Gerald Ford, and Nancy Pelosi. There are also photographs of her with Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian, and Michael Dukakis, as well as famous actors, prominent artists, performers, journalists, and broadcasters. There is also material related to Chen's work with other organizations such as the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian/Pacific Women's Network L.A., Pacific Council on International Policy, and the California Democratic Party Asian Pacific Caucus. Due to the nature of the collection, there is anti-Asian and anti-immigrant material that uses racist language and images.
