Back family photograph album

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  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

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  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

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  Tom-Chong Family photograph album

  Visual Materials

  Family album of snapshots depicting the family of Du Wan and Tom J. Chong in Los Angeles, California, in the 1930s. There are many views of the Chong family and friends, as well as members of Los Angeles's Chinese community on outings, at the beach, attending picnics, on the University of Southern California campus, and at their residences. The album was presumably compiled by the Chongs' son Paul Tom, a pharmacist, and there are many images of him with friends as a young man, as well as a few of him posing at the shop where he worked in Old Chinatown near the Los Angeles Plaza. There are also images of the "Majestic Mandarins" band, shots of Paul on location in 1936 as an extra for the films "Lost Horizon" and "The General Died at Dawn," and of the "Chinese Group" of the Screen Actors Guild in a 1937 Labor Day parade. In addition there are 14 pieces of ephemera at the back of the album related to Paul consisting chiefly of cards and invitations often related to the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, and a program for Paul's 1928 graduation from Los Angeles High School. Some photographs have handwritten captions.

  photCL 475

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  Photograph album of Chinese American aviation mechanic students

  Visual Materials

  A photograph album of 83 snapshot photographs compiled by an unidentified Chinese American graduate of the Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute, an early trade school for aircraft maintenance training in Los Angeles, California. The images document the social and professional lives of young Chinese Americans in Southern California during the 1930s. Images depict groups of Chinese American friends and co-workers, often seen in outings to Redondo Beach, Hollywood, and public gardens. There are also images of aircraft, cars, and students in mechanical workshops. There is no writing in the album, but a few prints have locations and dates written on the back.

  photCL 740

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  Kawakami family photograph album

  Visual Materials

  A photograph album depicting a Japanese American family in California in the pre-internment period, along with portraits of Japanese family members. There isn't any writing in the album, but one photograph is inscribed "To Mr. S. Kawakami," who may be the compiler. The album begins with formal portraits of family groups in traditional Japanese dress that were most likely taken in Japan. A photograph of a young child laid into the album has Japanese printing on it, and there are a few pressed flowers in the album. Other images show Japanese Americans in California, including the University of California, Berkeley campus; a large group in front of the Berkeley Buddhist Temple on Channing Way, Berkeley; Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica; downtown Los Angeles; Santa Barbara Mission; and San Francisco. Three images depict a sumo wrestling match that may have taken place in California.

  photCL 648

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  Letters to Seid Back Jr

  Manuscripts

  Three letters from students thanking Chinese-American businessman Seid Back Jr. for hosting them on a summer boat trip from San Francisco, as well as a letter to Back from police Detective Sergeant H.H. Hawley in Portland, Oregon. The three student letters to Back, all dated 1916, include one from K. Young, who notes "I haven't seen any of our Chinese friends and merchants to [sic] treated our boys as you"; one from K.H. Chiu of the Chinese Students' Christian Association who notes that many of the students Back hosted have already gone back to work or summer school, and asks him to keep a university pennant as a memento of "your Christian brother Chiu and 'California'"; and one from Stephen Mark, who writes from onboard the S.S. "T.C. Walker" that the summer class session has emptied his savings and "I am dead broke, knowing hardly [if] I am to return to college...as each year comes I find it much more difficult to work and study at the same time," and notes that several Chinese students are leaving Berkeley but will probably be replaced with others, although "the requirements are so strict here that many a one finds it necessary to transfer to some other university in order to graduate in due time." The letter from Sergeant Hawley is dated 1913 and asks Back for a contribution toward a dinner for the "poor unfortunate girls" in the Home of the Good Sheppard.

  mssHM 80446-80449