Visual Materials

Photographic postcard of a joss house, or Chinese temple, in Evanston, Wyoming

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Description: This photographic postcard depicts a joss house, or Chinese temple, in Evanston, Wyoming. It was built in 1894 and destroyed by fire in 1922. The temple served as the spiritual and cultural center of Evanston's small Chinese community, which was primarily composed of railroad workers recruited by the Union Pacific Railroad and miners from the nearby Almy coal mines.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Production date: approximately 1894-1922.
Call number: photPF 26049
Provenance: Purchased from Michael Maslan Vintage Posters, Photographs, Postcards & Ephemera, June 2025.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
Rights: The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.

Chinese Josh-House, S. F., Cal

Visual Materials

Cabinet card showing an eye-level view of the storefront of a two-story building in San Francisco, California, decorated with banners in Chinese, and identified as a joss house, or Chinese temple.

photPF 20828

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O. V. Lange's Views of San Francisco and other photographs

Visual Materials

Seven cabinet card photographs of buildings and streets in San Francisco, including the Chinese Joss House and St. Lewis Alley, Chinatown. Also two photographs of Hotel Brockway, Lake Tahoe; one cabinet card of a wooden Catholic church and bungalow with priest standing in front, El Rio, California.

photPF 630-639

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Guardian of the Temple, Chinese Joss House, San Francisco

Visual Materials

These lantern slides depict urban, agricultural, and nature scenes of California in the 1870s. The slides acted as a visual accompaniment to real estate developer Charles Victor Hall's traveling lecture promoting California's resources and benefits, aimed to encourage New Englanders and Europeans to relocate to California. This collection is significant in its images of Native Americans in California, mainly in the Yosemite area, and views of prospecting and mining. The majority of the lantern slides depict scenes from northern California, including Yosemite National Park and San Francisco. Some southern California views are also shown, including San Diego and Los Angeles County. Other slides of interest are views of the California ranches of F.P.F. Temple, Ellwood Cooper, F.D. Bacon, Maria Sepulveda, L.J. Rose (and family), and H.H. Moore. Portraits of General John C. Fremont and actress Maude Granger are also featured in the collection. In addition to the lantern slides, three copy negatives depicting the logging industry are also included. The originals are not in this collection. A printing plate with Hall's portrait is also included in this collection. The images were most likely taken by several different photographers, including Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and Bradley & Rulofson.

photCL 521

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Photographic postcards

Manuscripts

This collection consists of personal and professional papers of Kenneth Y. Fung. These papers include personal and business correspondence (including letters by immigration lawyer Y. C. Hong and Chinese rights activist, educator, and newspaper editor Walter U. Lum), documents, notes, immigration case files, notebooks, sympathy cards, newspaper clippings, copies of U.S. Senate bills, photographs and negatives, books, objects, and art, from 1890 to 2004 and the bulk covering 1915 to Fung's death in 1952. Also included are materials related to the Chinese American Citizens Alliance from 1923 to 1943. The majority of the collection deals with Fung's immigration work as a lawyer and Chinese Americans' rights advocacy, but a lot of the collection is personal in nature and provides details about his personal life and the Fung family and their lives in San Francisco, Chinatown, and the surrounding Bay Area of California.

mssFung

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Photographic postcards--2413 Fulton, Berkeley, Calif

Manuscripts

The Chang papers primarily contain photographs and scrapbooks related to the Chang and Ah Tye (pronounced Ah Tie) families. Photographs include family portraits and casual shots, such as Charlotte and Ora Chang posing in front of a home. The scrapbooks consist of photographs spanning from the early 1900s through mid-1900s. Events such as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, conventions, trips, graduations, and campus life are captured. There are also professional papers concerning Chang's work as a diplomat and consul for the Republic of China (Box 2, 14 and Box 3, 4). In one cipher cable, the message reads "Chang Hong Yen appointed Consul at Vancouver. Please urge Chang to take office as soon as possible..." (Box 2, 14). Also found in the collection are clippings and excerpts related to a bitter dispute over the Kong Chow Temple in San Francisco, California. Constructed in 1854, Charlotte Chang's father, Yee Ah Tye, was given a plot of land for the temple by the city of San Francisco for his work as an interpreter. Charlotte Chang also appeared to have a close relationship with Soong Ching-ling, a leader of the 1911 revolution that established the Republic of China. In a letter dated March 14, 1917, Ching-ling writes, "A friend of ours, General Julian S. Carr expects to arrive in May at Frisco, &; I am sending you a slight token of my love & gratitude for your kindness to me when I too was a perfect stranger to you" (Box 1, 13). Other items in the collection are newspaper clippings, printed matter related to Chang's posthumous appointment, Chinese calligraphy, and Ah Tye's family tree.

mssChangpapers

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Dorothy O'Dell Philippines photograph album

Visual Materials

This album contains photographs compiled by Dorothy O'Dell, who resided in the Cavite province of the Philippines during her husband's service in the U.S. Navy. The images depict the couple's travel in England, India, Jerusalem, Panama, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, capturing specific sites such as Mount Ebal, the "Gateway to Ancient Shechem," Sebastia (Palestine), the "Ancient Castle Thunton" (Taunton Castle, England), Windsor Castle (England), Edinburgh Castle (Scotland), Heidelberg Castle (Germany), the "Hindu Temple" (Meenakshi Amman Temple) and the "Lake Temple" (Vandiyur Mariamman Temple) in Madurai, India. The photographs also document their residence in O'ahu, Hawai'i and Dorothy's evacuation from the Philippines and return to the United States via the S.S. Washington to San Francisco, California. However, many of the images capture Philippine landmarks in Manila, some of which were later damaged or destroyed by the Japanese in World War II. These landmarks include the Jai Alai Building, Puerta de Parián, and Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje cathedral in Antipolo. There are also photographs of the Chinese Yu Tan and Paco cemeteries in Manila, the Taal Volcano, images of Igorot dancers in ceremonial dress performing for Navy personnel, an Igorot person in traditional clothing in Northern Luzon, Filipino funeral processions, street scenes capturing Filipino citizens in their daily activities, livestock, and the O'Dell home on "Radio Road" or Salamanca Drive.The depictions of daily life in pre-war Philippines in and around the naval base are described through written notes by Dorothy on the album pages. Two cabinet card portraits produced by the B.D. Garduno Studio are also included in the album along with photographs of American naval ships and military personnel. The leather album cover is embossed with two Chinese dragons with an emblazoned sphere between them and a Chinese Junk ship below. A few of the album pages appear to have missing photographs.

photCL 746

Photographic postcard of a joss house, or Chinese temple, in Evanston, Wyoming

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