A Local View of Old Chinatown: The Lisa See Collection

Author Lisa See has given The Huntington a trove of more than 300 rare glass plate negatives and photographs, some dating back to the late 19th century. These photographs were taken in and around Los Angeles’ Old Chinatown. The studio portraits and street scenes provide a rare view of daily life in the city’s original Chinatown, which thrived mainly from 1890 to 1910, before it was largely cleared in the 1930s to make way for Union Station.

In this video, See discusses the collection with Li Wei Yang, curator of Pacific Rim Collections.