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LA's "old" Chinatown in 1902. Below, Hong with then-Governor Ronald Reagan in the late 1960s. Courtesy The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
The new calendar of upcoming exhibitions at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Garden in San Marino includes one that should be appealing to those of us who are into the details of Los Angeles history. In November the Huntington will put up an exhibit on You Chung Hong, one of the first Chinese Americans to pass the California Bar. He practiced as an immigration lawyer in LA's Chinatown and was a founding member when Chinatown was moved to its current location to make way for the construction of Union Station in the 1930s. The Huntington received Hong's family papers in 2006 — papers which no doubt reflect a lot of what was going on in Los Angeles during the decades when Hong was active.
"This exhibition is the first opportunity for the public to get a deeper sense of the life of this extraordinary figure in Chinese-American history through some 75 items, including historical documents, correspondence, photographs, maps, and ledgers," the Huntington flackage says.
The Chinese Exclusion Act, a federal law in effect from 1882 to 1943, prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. Regarded as one of the leading authorities on Chinese immigration, Y.C Hong gave testimony in Washington, D. C., on several occasions at congressional and presidential commission hearings. “During his lifetime, he facilitated and worked on at least 7,000 immigration cases,” said Li Wei Yang, curator of Western American History at The Huntington and curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition will give visitors a rare and comprehensive view of the life and career of a legendary lawyer who advocated relentlessly on behalf of Chinese Americans striving to achieve the American dream.”
Divided into six sections, the exhibition will provide visitors with insight into the early history of the Chinese experience in California, in part through photographs of Chinese gold miners and railroad laborers; it will cover Hong’s early years in San Francisco, where he was born and educated up though high school; it then segues into his career as an immigration attorney, through examples of a coaching scroll and village map that some of his clients had to memorize in order to pass the questioning of U.S. immigration officials.
Hong’s extensive civic and political engagement, which includes his tenure as president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, is illustrated by photographs of him with Ronald Reagan, when Reagan was governor of California, and with Soong May-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-Shek, president of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975. The exhibition also provides an intimate portrait of Hong’s family life, including a love letter to his wife, Mabel, and photographs of them with their sons. The final section focuses on New Chinatown in Los Angeles, which Hong, as a founding member, helped build after Old Chinatown was razed to make way for Union Station. A poster and photograph of the opening ceremonies for the colorful and family-friendly New Chinatown, contrasted with photographs taken of Old Chinatown with its run-down infrastructure, help bring home the impact of Hong’s influence.
Also on the Huntington schedule through 2016:
Sept. 5, 2015–Jan. 5, 2016
MaryLou and George Boone Gallery
While a portion of the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art is closed for expansion and reinstallation, 25 selections from among the earliest works in the collection are spotlighted in a temporary installation, focusing on masterworks in various media made between 1700 and 1868. Paintings by the most influential American artists of the period, such as Frederic Edwin Church, John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and Benjamin West, are joined by representative furniture, silver, and sculpture from the Colonial, Federal, and Civil War periods.
A World of Strangers: Crowds in American Art
Oct. 17, 2015–April 4, 2016
Huntington Art Gallery
Crowds are the temporary groups that strangers form. They take shape at baseball games and in subway stations, at patriotic parades and in angry riots. Fickle and ephemeral, crowds can be joyous, destructive, or somber. “A World of Strangers: Crowds in American Art” explores how artists have represented these teeming and fluid masses from the early 20th century to today. This focused loan exhibition includes about 20 prints, photographs, and other works by artists such as George Bellows, Walker Evans, Armin Landeck, George Luks, Benton Murdoch Spruance, and Weegee.
The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920
Jan. 23, 2016–May 9, 2016
MaryLou and George Boone Gallery
During the only West Coast stop on a national tour, The Huntington’s presentation of “The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920” showcases a hand-picked selection of 17 paintings from the exhibition that originated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, exploring the connections between the American impressionist movement and the emergence of gardening as a middle-class leisure pursuit. Featured artists include Philip Leslie Hale (1865–1931), Childe Hassam (1859–1935), and John Henry Twachtman (1853–1902). A richly illustrated catalog complements the exhibition.
Geographies of Wonder, Part 1: Origin Stories of America’s National Parks, 1872-1933
May 14, 2016 – Sept. 3, 2016
Geographies of Wonder, Part 2: Evolution of the National Park Idea, 1933–2016
Oct. 22, 2016–Feb. 13, 2017
Library, West Hall
The year 2016 marks the centennial of the National Park Service. To celebrate this anniversary, The Huntington presents two consecutive exhibitions exploring the origins and evolution of the national park idea through rare materials selected from The Huntington’s American history archives. To illuminate the dynamic interplay between American landscapes and national identity, each of the focused exhibitions explores national parks over time, their cultural influences, and their eventual incorporation into a system of public lands known as the nation’s “crown jewels.” Diaries, letters, and travel narratives written by explorers, politicians, and tourists join guidebooks, promotional literature, posters, photographs, and maps that helped promote tourism. The exhibitions, together featuring some 85 objects, spotlight many items rarely seen by the public, including stunning images of national park scenes by artists such as Ansel Adams, William Henry Jackson, and Thomas Moran.
The first of the two exhibitions highlights Americans’ early encounters with natural scenic wonders such as Niagara Falls and the Hudson River Valley, and follows the story through the creation of the first national parks, including Yellowstone and Yosemite. The second exhibition explores how public interest in the parks has grown from the era of the Great Depression to the dawn of the 21st century, even as the concept of how a national park should best serve the public has undergone significant changes.
