Asian American Comparative Collection:
Introduction
Priscilla Wegars, Ph.D., Volunteer Curator
Laboratory of Anthropology
University of Idaho
P. O. Box 441111
Moscow, Idaho 83844-1111 USA
208-885-7075
pwegars@uidaho.edu
Introduction
In recent years there has been an increase in studies of people of
Asian ancestry, primarily Chinese and Japanese, who immigrated to the
West during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In Idaho in
particular, this movement of people first took place during the
Territorial and early Statehood periods, and later through World War II
when Japanese Americans were held in internment and concentration camps
here. Archaeological excavations, conducted on a variety of sites in
Idaho and elsewhere, have recovered everyday objects that were made in
China and Japan. The need to understand these artifacts, their uses,
and the people who owned them led to the establishment, in 1982, of the
Asian American Comparative Collection
(AACC), one of the first celebrations of ethnic and cultural
diversity on the University of Idaho campus.
AACC
volunteer curator Priscilla Wegars
The Collection
Since its founding, the AACC's main
objective has been to obtain an actual example, or where that is not
possible, a photograph, of every representative object of Asian
manufacture that has been, or is likely to be, found in an
archaeological or museum context in the western United States and
elsewhere. Excavators who uncover fragments of Asian objects can
compare them with whole examples in the AACC to identify what they have
found. The major
artifact
classes
now represented include food and beverage containers, table ceramics,
opium
smoking paraphernalia, medicinal paraphernalia, gambling-related items,
and other personal and domestic objects.
One significant assemblage includes
many
examples of Chinese restaurant wares
from the Berkeley, California firm of F. S.
Louie & Co. Another
growing collection contains examples of past and present anti-Asian
racism, stereotypes, and propaganda.
The artifacts in the AACC have
been acquired through excavation,
purchase, or donations from interested persons. Bibliographical
materials,
such as books and articles, have been purchased or donated, and form
the
nucleus of a reference library emphasizing site reports, artifact
identification,
and historical documentation. Several thousand images are available for
study.
Unlike museum objects, the AACC artifacts provide a "hands on"
approach
to understanding Asian historical archaeology in a time period that
encompasses the early 1860s through the mid-1960s.
AACC volunteer Claire Chin
AACC employee Nina
Blumenfeld
and volunteer Terry Abraham
Scholarly and Public Interest
The function of the AACC is
to serve as a clearinghouse of
information
for individuals conducting research. The Collection is also shared with
community and educational groups to stir their interest in Asian
American
studies.
Undergraduate and graduate students,
faculty members, employees of government
agencies and private firms, museum curators, and public school students
have studied the Collection to answer a broad range of questions.
Researchers
have come from many parts of the United States as well as from Canada,
Australia,
Japan, China, and Korea.
Researcher Ann Sharley, Goucher
College, at the AACC
We Value Your Input!
If you have corrections to this Web
site, or suggestions for topics
that should be included, please let us know.
Return to AACC
March 2008/intro.htm/pwegars@uidaho.edu