Browse Items (5932 total)
Sort by:
Northwest -- Idaho -- Coeur d'Alene (#06)
"Airplane view of the city from the SW of the steamboat landing and from the center of the park."
Witness Attestation for Sue Ah Yen
The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to curb immigrant laborers from China from entering the United States. Part of this law denied reentry to Chinese laborers leaving the United States. As a result, Chinese merchants, like Sue Ah Yen needed to…
Gew Ah Yen Certificate of Residence
The passage of the 14th Amendment provided all persons born in the United States birthright citizenship, a right confirmed by the 1898 Supreme Court Decision United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Despite this ruling, United States citizens married to…
Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Co. Storefront on West Sprague Avenue
The Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company in Spokane was established in 1905 by Hoy Gar (also known as Hoy Sam). Hoy was born in Portland, Oregon in 1869 and started his medicine shop on 126 1/2 Wall Street in 1905.The store likely operated on the second…
Joe and Kon Leong at Lunar New Year Celebration at the Noodle Grill
As with Western New Year celebrations, food and drink are an important part of Lunar New Year festivities. In Spokane, the Leong family frequently served a banquet consisting of traditional Cantonese dishes to the Chinese community to commemorate the…
Logan Hotel
The Logan Hotel and the various ground floor businesses from the southeast corner of Stevens Street and Main Avenue. This photograph, likely taken during the late-1950s based on the billboard advertising the Edsel, was taken from the same angle as…
Takami Family Seated in Logan Hotel
This photograph of the Takami family includes members of three generations of the family. Starting from the back-left going clockwise, the individuals photographed are Ikuta (Harry) Takami, Linda Takami, Tsuruyo (Mary) Takami, and Taki Takami. Ikuta…
Hoy Gar Funeral
Hoy Gar, owner of the Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company in Spokane, Washington, died on February 27, 1926 from an appendicitis. A popular figure within both Spokane's Chinese American community and in Spokane at large, Hoy's funeral drew hundreds of…
Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Co. and Citizen's Savings and Loan Society Storefront on 126 1/2 Wall Street
The Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company in Spokane was established in 1905 by Hoy Gar (also known as Hoy Sam). Hoy was born in Portland, Oregon in 1869 and started his medicine shop on 126 1/2 Wall Street in 1905.The store likely operated on the second…
Noodle Grill Staff
In this photograph, the Noodle Grill wait staff stands next to the booths in the store on 512 West Main Avenue. In an interview, Lotus Leong, the daughter of Noodle Grill founder Joe Leong, recalled the Noodle Grill's interior. According to Leong,…
Kenneth Kato in Trent Alley
Kenneth Kato's family lived in the Northwestern Hotel and Hand Laundry on 333 Trent Boulevard when he was born in 1949. The back of the building opened up onto Trent Alley, which served as an entrance to the hotel on the second floor run by Kato's…
Kato Family in Trent Alley
The group photograph taken in Trent Alley includes Kenneth Kato's grandparents Testumu (back row left) and Ume Terao (front center), his mother (left of Ume Terao), and Kenneth (right of Ume Terao). The Northwestern Hotel and Hand Laundry is behind…
Hisako Kato on the Fire Escape of the Northwestern Hotel
Trent Alley was never known for its abundant plant life. This photograph of the back fire escape of the Northwestern Hotel and Hand Laundry captures a large hanging vine that grew in the portion of the alley where the Davenport Grand currently…
Grant Street Methodist Church
A large group of people gathered for a group portrait in front of the Grant Street Methodist Church on Fifth Avenue and Grant Street. According to the church's' history published in 1967, the photograph was taken for a 35th anniversary celebration on…
Japanese Methodist Mission Kindergarten Portrait
The Japanese Methodist Mission in Spokane was founded in 1902 above the home of Reverend Genshichi Tsuruta. Initially, the mission served young men migrating to Spokane for work or school, but by 1910, when the church ran services out of a building…
Meejosee Wong, Yut Sun Hoy, and Sandy Wong in Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company
Yut Sun Hoy ran the Wing Wo Chinese Medicine Company after the death of his uncle Hoy Sam in 1926. In 1953, Yut Sun moved the store to 917 West Sprague Avenue, which is currently the block containing the Bing Crosby Theater and the Knitting Factory.…
New Chinese Republic Parade Float
According to the 1910 census, the Chinese American population in Spokane County was 263. Many in this community lived near Trent Avenue (now Spokane Falls Boulevard) between Browne Street and Howard Street. The population held enough recognition that…
Tetsuzo Terao Near His Home on Cowley Street
Many Japanese Americans living in Spokane who could afford a house in the first half of the 20th century, purchased homes on the lower South Hill east of Division Street. These neighborhoods were amongst those where families of color were not barred…
Downtown Spokane During the Expo '74 Renovation
Aerial photograph of the Spokane riverfront amidst the renovations in preparation for Expo '74. Along the south end of Trent Avenue, the rubble from a building at the corner of Stevens Street and Trent Avenue is visible. This likely includes what…
Sandy Wong and Virginia Fox in the Chinese Gardens Restaurant
The Chinese Gardens restaurant opened on 611 West Sprague Avenue in 1948 by John (Sheong) Chan. This is a photograph is of waitress Virginia Fox and Sandy Wong, whose uncle, Y.S. Hoy, had a financial interest in the business. The Chinese Gardens was…
Chinese Gardens Menu
As of 2024, the Chinese Gardens is one of the oldest Chinese restaurants still operating in Spokane. Started in 1948, the restaurant was one of a couple open on West Sprague at the time. The restaurant operated on the second floor near the corner of…
Letterhead Envelopes from Chan family papers
In spite of their names, both the New York Cafe and Golden Wheel Restaurant were Chinese restaurants in Ellensburg and Yakima respectively. The Golden Wheel Restaurant is still in business as of 2025. The New York Cafe occupied the ground level of a…
Nisei Basketball Team Members
By the 1930s, the first American-born generation of Japanese Americans began to come of age. This generation were called Nisei, which translates to second generation (the immigrant generation were called Issei). This portrait is of a group of…
Spokane Falls -- Recent (#15)
Looking down on south branch, middle falls from Howard Street Bridge, high water, winter 1934.
Northwest -- Lakes -- Newman Lake (#40)
"Panoramic view of the lake and the surround country" of Newman Lake
Northwest -- Idaho -- Post Falls (#01)
"Dam at Post Falls power station. The Washington Water Power 15,000 hp."
Northwest -- Idaho -- Post Falls (#02)
"Power house of the Post Falls station of the Washington Water Power company located on the Spokane River in Idaho near the Washington state line. A Spokane River project."
Washington -- Kettle Falls (#26)
"Looking directly across the main line of the falls from the west end."
Spokane -- Electric power plants (#39)
"Little Falls power station, Spokane River, near Spokane. 32,800 hp. the W.W.P. Co."