Letters to Seid Back Jr | Collections | The Huntington

Letters to Seid Back Jr | Collections | The Huntington

You might also be interested in

Image not available
Photograph of Seid Back Jr. family in front of their home, Portland, Oregon
Visual Materials
Photograph of Seid Gain Back Jr., his wife Mary Chan Back, and their two children Dip Gay Seid Back (1915-1983) and Katherine Mae Seid Back Lee (1918-2006) standing in front of their home in Portland, Oregon. The children are seated in their small, florally decorated pedal fire truck for Portland's 15th Annual Rose Festival, Grand Floral Parade. A caption imbedded in the photograph cites the event, the children's names and ages, and says "Prize Winner." The photograph was taken by well-known Portland area photographer Arthur Prentiss.
photPF 26007
Image not available
Photograph of Seid Back in front of his general store in Portland, Oregon
Visual Materials
A mounted photograph of Chinese American merchant Seid Back and three other men standing in front of Back's store at 146 Second Street in Portland, Oregon. A sign above the store reads "Seid Back & Co. / General Commission Merchants." The other men are unidentified; two are wearing traditional Chinese clothing. The photographer is also unidentified.
photPF 26009
Image not available
Back family photograph album
Visual Materials
A photograph album documenting the lives of Seid Back, Jr., Mary Chan Back, and their two children, Dip Gay Seid Back (1915-1983) and Katherine Mae Seid Back Lee (1918-2006). Seid Back, Jr. was the son of prominent Chinese American merchant Seid Back, based in Portland, Oregon. The album begins with a studio portrait of the Back family taken in the early 20th century and continues with the lives of the Back family and friends in locations such as Oregon, Washington, California, and the South Pacific, through the late 1940s. A man who is possibly Dip Gay Seid Back is seen in military clothing at a U.S. encampment; writing on the back says "Men of 13th Gen. Hospital. Dec. 1944. New Guinea." Other photographs show young people, white and Asian, in recreational activities and sometimes posing by new cars or in front of houses. The album depicts the everyday activities of young Chinese Americans during the Chinese Exclusion era, their travels by automobiles throughout the American West, a young Chinese American serviceman in the South Pacific, and interracial marriages between Chinese American women and U.S. servicemen.
photCL 706
Image not available
James A. Garfield, Mentor, Ohio, letter to Richard Hawley :
Manuscripts
Regarding the "Morey letter," a letter purportedly written by Garfield to supposed union representative Henry Lee Morey claiming to be in favor of Chinese immigration. The letter was publicized during the 1880 presidential election campaign; Garfield denied being the author. Item is mounted on a ledger page with newspaper clippings about Hawley on the reverse, November 1880.
mssHM 30485
Image not available
Avery Brundage letter to Robert and Adelaide Zimmerman
Manuscripts
In this typed and signed letter, Avery Brundage writes Christmas greetings to the Zimmermans of San Marino, California. He urges them to come and see him while he is in Santa Barbara. He then states "I thought I was going to be a free man after retiring as president of the International Olympic Committee last summer but I have been travelling [sic] more than ever."
mssHM 75689
Image not available
Ella P. Starkweather letter to "Mrs. Dwight and Family,"
Manuscripts
This letter was written by Ella P. Starkweather, a school teacher, living in the town of Bridgewater, now part of South Dakota. Starkweather describes her experiences in Dakota Territory to her friends back home. To her surprise, she likes the school where she is teaching. There are new series of books, a school room that is large and pleasantly furnished. She writes that some of her students could benefit from a lesson on cleanliness: "...a few would be rendered much more attractive by a vigorous application of soap suds..." Regarding life on the frontier, she writes: "You may imagine the people here are sick of the country, and I can hardly give you an idea how happy and contented they all seem to be. They say the most scant time for provisions they have known is since I came and I know of no one suffering." She also touches upon the weather and the farmers. "The country looks lovely, farmers who had seed here and sown find everything encouraging." Near the end of the letter, she describes her layover in Sheldon, Iowa for five days and her amusement regarding a car half-filled with Bohemian immigrants.
mssHM 80839