Migration and Immigration

Chinese immigrants had started arriving in America as early as the eighteenth century, during the time of Spanish colonial rule over the Philippines. Immigrants arrived in California (which until 1848 belonged to Mexico) aboard Spanish ships working as sailors, merchants and fishermen. After the American War of Independence, America began trading with China independently and piqued the interest of the Chinese in this new foreign land. Chinese merchants and sailors travelled to North America and a small number of male students were sent for schooling, however very few settled permanently. The first major wave of Chinese immigration came when gold was found at Sutter's Mill, California in 1848. The California Gold Rush attracted over 300,000 people and half of that number arrived from the East.

An Act to Prevent Chinese from Acquiring Crown Lands 1884 Business Records Government of British Columbia
Affidavit of Sam Sing 1918 Business Records Sing, Sam
Anonymous Warning with Theatre Tickets 1921 Ephemera
Anti-Chinese Association Petition 1880 Ephemera Anti-Chinese Association
Anti-Chinese Riot in Denver, Colorado 20 Nov 1880 Illustration
Augustus W Loomis Letter: San Francisco, California, to Henry Wm Moulton, 30 Mar 1870 30 Mar 1870 Correspondence, Manuscript Loomis, Augustus Ward
Autograph Letters from Charles Henry Kilbourn to his Sister Emeline Esther Chase 9 Jan 1839 - 8 Apr 1851 Correspondence
The B C Packers Association Chinese Contract 1922 Business Records Chung, Nye; The British Columbia Packers Association
Bill of Health 1892 Ephemera, Business Records
Biography of Yip Sang c. 1925 Pamphlet
Booklet Regarding Government Regulation of Chinese Immigration 1876 Pamphlet Government of British Columbia
British Columbia: Farms, Fisheries, Forests, Mines 1890 Pamphlet
Broadside Scrapbook 1824-1908 Scrapbook, Newspaper, Clipping
Business Card for Mrs Pearson's Blue Bird Inn c. 1920 Ephemera
Business Card for Wong Wah Yew n.d. Ephemera Wong, Wa Yew
California Restaurant Meal Ticket c. 1910 Ephemera
Canadian Pacific Orient c. 1925 Print, Painting Maurice
Canadian Pacific Railway and its Assailants 1882 Pamphlet Mohawk
Canadian Pacific Steamships Agent's Stubs 1928 Ephemera
The Canadian Pacific: the New Highway to the East Across the Mountains, Prairies and Rivers of Canada 1887 Pamphlet, Printed Book
Cannery Gang c. 1917 Photograph Jue, Frank
A Chicken in One Hand c. 1900 Photograph
China in 15 Days 1914 Pamphlet
China Trade Days in California: Selected Letters from the Thompson Papers, 1832-1863 / Edited by D. Mackenzie Brown, with a Foreword by Robert Glass Cleland 1947 Printed Book, Correspondence Edited by Donald Mackenzie Brown
A Chinaman Section Gang n.d. Photograph Haynes, Jay F
Chinamen c. 1890 Manuscript Shorey, Sam
Chinamen Washing Gold 1908 Ephemera Chapman, Howard
Chinese and Japanese Immigrants, 1897-1898 1899 Business Records Government of British Columbia
Chinese at Immigration Inspection c. 1900 Photograph
Chinese Children c. 1920 Photograph Ko, C Y
Chinese Coolie Camp at William Head 1919 Correspondence
Chinese Family in a Car c. 1916-1919 Photograph Jue, Frank
Chinese Family in a Yard c. 1916-1919 Photograph Jue, Frank
Chinese Gift Note n.d. Ephemera Xu, Chang Cai
Chinese Grocery Store c. 1909 Photograph Weidner, Charles
Chinese House Boy c. 1910 Photograph
Chinese Immigrants or 'Coolies' Arriving in San Francisco to Work on the Transcontinental Railroad c. 1860 Painting
Chinese Immigration into Canada 1900 Business Records Government of British Columbia
The Chinese in America 1877 Printed Book Gibson, Otis
The Chinese in California c.1870 Manuscript Cary, Thomas G
Chinese in California 1888-1920 Clipping, Manuscript, Business Records
Chinese Information Committee News Bureau 1908 Ephemera, Newspaper
Chinese Labourers on Board a Steamship c. 1891 Photograph Robinson, Captain Samuel
Chinese Leaving Eureka c. 1885 Photograph Meiser, J A
Chinese Man in a Work Camp c. 1916-1919 Photograph Jue, Frank
The Chinese Nationalist League of Canada 1922 Photograph
Chinese Procession, Chinatown c. 1900 Photograph
Chinese Public School Picnic 1927 Photograph Wand, Cecil B
Chinese Regulation Act, 1884 1886 Business Records Government of British Columbia
Chinese Vegetable Gardens n.d. Photograph Bates, Philip S
Chinese Wedding Portrait n.d. Photograph
Chinese Workers Treading Grapes n.d. Painting
Copy of An Act to Protect Free White Labour c. 1990 Business Records Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Washington
Copy of a Certificate of Residence Issued to Yee Foung n.d. Ephemera First District of California
Deack Passengers' on a Ship May 1884 Illustration
Diagnosis Sheet from the Chinese Herb Company c. 1914 Ephemera Chinese Herb Company
Disallowance of Chinese Immigration Act 1884 Business Records, Memoranda Government of British Columbia
Dominion of Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway 1874 Pamphlet, Printed Book Wilson, William
Fishin' c. 1917 Photograph Jue, Frank
Four Men on a Rocky Hill n.d. Photograph Jue, Frank
George and Stanley c. 1916 Photograph Jue, Frank
Get your Canadian Home from the Canadian Pacific: a Handbook Regarding Sunny Alberta and the Opportunities Offered you by the Canadian Pacific Railway in that Province 1912 Pamphlet, Ephemera
Group Portrait of People at a Train Station 1916 Photograph Jue, Frank
Head Tax Certificate for Hen Chong Ping 1922 Ephemera, Business Records Government of Canada
Head Tax Exemption Certificate 1905 Ephemera Government of Canada
Hear the Chinese Band of Portland n.d. Poster, Ephemera
A Holiday Trip: Montreal to Victoria and Return via the Canadian Pacific Railway 1888 Pamphlet, Printed Book
If You Want Asiatics to Have the Vote n. d. Poster, Ephemera Canadian Labour Party
In Chinatown c. 1910 Photograph
Indentures for three Chinese servants transported to California from Hong Kong in 1849. 1849 Business Records, Manuscript
Iroquois Crew c. 1920 Photograph
John or Our Chinese Relations/A Study of Our Emigration and Commercial Intercourse with the Celestial Empire 1879 Printed Book Knox, Thomas W
Letter from the Office of the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages to Mr Fong 1935 Ephemera, Business Records Office of Registrar Births, Deaths, and Marriages
Letter to the Chinese Benevolent Society's Board of Directors 1926 Correspondence
Letter to James G Swan from Charles T Wilder 1893 Correspondence
Letter to W D Scott from Yip Sang 1904 Correspondence
Letters from Daniel Davis to Harriet Davis, 1849-1853 1793-1941 Correspondence, Manuscript Davis, Daniel
Letters from Henry C Worth to his Wife Ann Marie 1849-1851 Correspondence
Letters from Oliver S Chase 12 Apr 1866 - 25 Mar 1868 Correspondence
Letters from William C Pease to his Parents, 1849 12 Feb 1849-12 Nov 1849 Correspondence
Letters from William C Pease to his Parents, 1854 1854 Correspondence
The Life of Tristram Coffyn, of Nantucket Massachusetts, Founder of the Family Line in America… 1881 Printed Book, Manuscript Coffin, Allen
Members of a Library Sending Off Their Director 1926 Photograph
Memoir: Geographical, Political, and Commercial, on the Present State, Productive Resources, and Capabilities for Commerce, of Siberia, Manchuria, and the Asiatic Islands of the Northern Pacific Ocean, and on the Importance of Opening Commercial Intercourse with Those Countries 1848 Printed Book Palmer, Aaron H
Menu for W K Gardens Restaurant c. 1920 Ephemera
Merchant Tailor Shop 1923 Photograph
Mr and Mrs Wong Sun Yue Clemens Inside Store c. 1915 Photograph
Mrs Louie and Albert c. 1916 Photograph Jue, Frank
Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the Years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or The First American Settlement on the Pacific 1854 Printed Book Franchère, Gabriel. Translated and edited by J V Huntington.
New Arrivals Off the Monteagle c. 1907-1923 Photograph
New Forces in Old China/An Unwelcome but Inevitable Awakening 1904 Printed Book Brown, Arthur Judson
On the Ambitious Projects of Russia in regard to North West America, with Particular Reference to New Albion & New California 1955 Printed Book Edited by George Peter Hammond
Opium Den Underground c. 1900 Photograph
Pay Cheque 1906 Ephemera, Business Records
Placer Mining by Chinamen c. 1890 Photograph Bierstadt, C
Portrait of a Chinese Man in a Suit 1915 Photograph Jue, Frank
Portrait of Yip Sang c. 1920 Photograph
Presbyterian Church School n.d. Photograph
Private Diary of Robert Dollar on His Recent Visits to China 1912 Printed Book, Journal Dollar, Robert
Quon On Jan Travel Agency 1915 Photograph Yucho Chow Studio
Record of Number of Days Work 1887 Ephemera, Business Records
Report of the Committee Appointed by the Government of the "Board of Trade", to Take into Consideration the Communication of Messrs. Sampson & Tappan, Dated April 24th, 1856 1856 Printed Book
Report of the Select Committee on the Question of Chinese Immigration 1879 Business Records Government of British Columbia
Restriction of Chinese Immigration 1892 Business Records Government of British Columbia
Return of Employers for the Year 1921 1922 Business Records Wing Sang Company
Rights of Chinese 1858 Pamphlet
The Russians in California 1933 Printed Book
Sailors and Chinese Labourers Aboard a Ship c. 1890 Photograph
Scene in a Dried Goods Store c. 1910 Photograph
A Short and Truthful History of the Taking of California and Oregon by the Chinese in the Year A.D. 1899 1882 Printed Book Woltor, Robert
Should the Japanese be Excluded from Canada? 1908 Poster
Strathcona School Class Portrait n.d. Photograph
To the Land of Gold… 1897 Pamphlet
Two Men Behind the Desk of an Iowa Hotel c. 1919 Photograph
Two Young Chinese Couples c. 1917-1918 Photograph Jue, Frank
Unloading Salmon at a Cannery c. 1912 Photograph
Vaccinating the Steerage c. 1900 Photograph
Vancouver Water Works Notice 1887 Memoranda Keefer, G A
Vegetable Men Meet on DuPont Street 1889 Photograph Timms, Philip T
Victoria Cheung 1922 Photograph
Welcome Home Party c. 1916-1919 Photograph Jue, Frank
White Canada Crusade Membership Card n.d. Ephemera White Canada Crusade
Wing Sang Company and Lun Yick Company Stationery 1910-1920 Ephemera
Yip Family at Stanley Park c. 1900 Photograph
Yip Family Community and Social Activities Documents 1914-1956 Memoranda, Manuscript, Ephemera
Yip Sang, Business Card c. 1920 Ephemera
Young Immigrant's Trust Account Book 1923 Accounts, Business Records