More than Memories

“I saw documents and artifacts that I didn’t know still existed,” Yang says of the trove of archives relating to Los Angeles’ Old Chinatown, which thrived from approximately 1890 to 1910 before being demolished in the 1930s to make way for Union Station. “I also learned how important it was to Leslee to find a partner like The Huntington to make sure that this history gets preserved.”

The materials feature two of the earliest and most prominent Chinese families in Los Angeles: the Sees and the Leongs.

“My father was a prodigious collector,” Leslee says. “When he died, my family moved into his house. I had to organize the papers or we wouldn’t have had a place to sit down,” she quips. “I treated it like an archaeological dig.”

Her father, Gilbert Leong, was the first Chinese American architect in Los Angeles and one of the founders of East West Bank. Her mother, Florence See Leong, was the daughter of Fong See, who witnessed many changes in Los Angeles and his home country, China, during his 100 years. Fong See established one of the first Chinese-owned businesses in California, F. Suie One Co., which specializes in Asian antiques. Located in Pasadena, the store has been in continuous operation since 1888.

In 2020, Leslee donated the Gilbert, Florence, and Leslee See Leong Collection to The Huntington. “The archive is not just full of my family’s memories,” Leslee says. “It has the stories of so many different families that ran through my family’s lives.”

Yang attests to the papers’ significance. “Having this collection gives scholars a unique look into a chapter of Chinese American history that is really not told anywhere else,” he says. “Scholars are using The Huntington’s archives to put together the puzzle pieces from this era—whether it’s census records, photographs, or the correspondence of residents.”

Another significant step in filling that knowledge gap came in 2021: Author Lisa See donated to The Huntington more than 200 rare glass plate negatives and photographs taken in and around Old Chinatown in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her family had held on to the collection over the years.