Social History for Every Classroom

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Social History for Every Classroom

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Browse Items (77 total)

Chinese_Restaurant.tif
Large restaurants, like the one pictured on this postcard, served a wide cross-section of the Chinese community. The top floors were typically reserved for the elites of the neighborhood. Middle floors housed the kitchen and offered a menu of dishes…

Children_playing.tif
Children were a visible part of San Francisco's Chinatown. Because of the tight-knit community, children moved freely within the neighborhood, often without direct supervision. In this Arnold Genthe photograph, four boys look on as a fifth boy…

Jackson_Theater.tif
Going to the theater was a popular form of entertainment for Chinese immigrants. By the 1880s there were several different theater companies operating in Chinatown, including this theater, located on Jackson Street. Theaters could seat several…

Sam_Hop.tif
The Sam Hop Company, a general store on Clay Street in San Francisco, sold a wide assortment of Chinese imported goods. Merchants were the economic and political leaders of Chinatown. They worked with American contractors to bring workers from China…

balloon_man.tif
As this photograph of a Jewish balloon man on Dupont Street shows, there were many non-Chinese peddlers in San Francisco's Chinatown. Chinatown was a popular tourist destination in the late 19th century, and many peddlers sold novelty goods to…

chineseServants.tif
Many Chinese immigrants in the nineteenth century, the majority of whom were men, took their first jobs as domestic servants for white families in the West. They were responsible for cooking, cleaning, laundry, and sometimes childcare. One reason for…

SixCompanies.tif
This photograph shows the headquarters of the so-called Chinese Six Companies, officially known as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, on Stockton Street in San Francisco. The Six Companies, organized in the 1850s and formally…

SchoolScene.tif
This photograph shows a schoolroom scene from San Francisco's Chinese Public School, circa late nineteenth or early twentieth century. The Chinese immigrant students are taught by a middle-class white woman. Note the students' traditional dress and…

Alley.tif
The majority of Chinatown's residents were male laborers who worked in jobs like constructing railroads, mining, and agriculture. Many workers left their families in China, planning to return after they had made enough money. The rise of anti-Chinese…

2women.tif
These women relaxing in Golden Gate Park in the 1890s wear silk robes and embroidered slippers; their clothing indicates that it is some sort of holiday or special occasion. The ratio of men to women in Chinatown was 20-to-1; merchants' wives had the…
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