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Chinese-Americans in Minnesota: Primary Sources: Archives & Records

Manuscripts

Minnesota Ethnic History Project.  Project Records.
Correspondence, reports, research and interview notes, statistical data, chapter drafts, and other related material created by the Minnesota Ethnic History Project. The project operated under the auspices of the Minnesota Historical Society from 1973 to 1981 and culminated in the publication of the book They Chose Minnesota: A Survey of the State’s Ethnic Groups.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Augusta Starr Reminiscence: “The Front Seat, 1958 January.”
A copy of a typed reminiscence describing life in the area around what is now Loring Park in Minneapolis in the late 1800s. Information is given on: the streets around the author's house at the corner of Grant and Vine Place (now La Salle Avenue); the visit of the P. T. Barnum circus; routes of horse cars and steam motors; Chinese families in Minneapolis; visits to Minneapolis by William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Jennings Bryan; the Emerson Public School; and families who lived in the area.
MNHS call number: See the finding aid in the library (P1189-24).

Henry Gilbert White Papers.
Chinese materials in the Henry Gilbert White papers include short articles written by Chinese POWs during the Korean War, newspapers run by Chinese POWs, 1952-1953, picture books with anti-Chinese-communist and anti-Soviet stories, and anti-Chinese-communist cartoons.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Railroad Records.
Various files within the records of the Northern Pacific (NP) and Great Northern (GN) railways contain information on Chinese laborers who were hired to help build the western portions of the lines. For example, the NP Chief of Labor Relations general files contains a file on Chinese students selected by the Chinese government for NP employment, 1926-1946.  The GN Chief Engineer subject files include a file relating to GN consultations regarding the South China government railway and Chinese students, 1917-1948.  
MNHS call number: Northern Pacific Railroad Digital Finding Aid
MNHS call number: Great Northern Railroad Digital Finding Aid

Government Records

The Oriental in Minnesota: A Report to Governor Luther W. Youngdahl of Minnesota, by the Governor’s Interracial Commission.
[St. Paul, Minn.: The Commission], 1949.
MNHS call number: F615.C5 M6

Asian-Pacific Minnesotans Council Records
Meeting minutes of the Council (1985-1991) and committees and task forces (1985-1996), publications (1985-1993), and Council-sponsored events and meetings files (1986-1998).  The records provide basic documentation of the Council’s policies, decisions, and major activities.
MNHS call number: Digital Finding Aid

Oral Histories

Asians in Minnesota Oral History Project, Oral History Interviews, 1978-1982.
Thirty-nine interviews (seventeen Chinese) with Minnesotans who speak about their Asian backgrounds. Some immigrated from Asian countries as children and spent much of the twentieth century in Minnesota; others were born in the state and grew up as the children or grandchildren of immigrants; and others are newer Minnesotans, having arrived in the 1960s and 1970s.
MNHS call number:  Digital Audio and Transcripts

Oral History Interviews of the Asians in Greater Minnesota Oral History Project, 2011-2012.
Project highlights Asian Americans who live in outstate Minnesota. Asian Americans live in every county in Minnesota and those outstate have unique experiences about coming to and living in the state. The narrators discuss their personal stories of coming to Minnesota from a variety of Asian countries.
MNHS call number: Digital Audio and Transcripts

Books & Other Publications

Members of the Minneapolis Chinese-American community receiving recognition for their participation in the Aquatennial

Memoirs, Fort Snelling, 1945.
In English and Chinese.
Minnesota: s.n., 1945.
MNHS call number:  F612.H58 F662 1945

Chinese New Year Festivities in the City: The Year of the Rat: Sunday, February 25, 1996: First Trust Center … St. Paul, Minnesota.
St. Paul, Minn.: Chinese-American Association of Minnesota, 1996.
MNHS call number: F615.C5 C55 1996

Asian-Pacific Heritage Month Guide.
St. Paul, Minn.: Asian Business & Community Publishing, Inc., May 1992.
MNHS call number: F615.O6 A75

Asian-Pacific Community in Minnesota: The Asian-Pacific Heritage Leadership Award Program and the State Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans: Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, May 1994, by Dr. Patrick Mendis.
St. Paul, Minn.: Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans, 1994.
MNHS call number: F615.O6 A8 1994

 

City & Community Directories

City Directories

For cities such as Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, Winona, Lake City, Faribault, Stillwater, Willmar, Cloquet, Virginia, Hibbing, Ely, and Brainerd are availble in the library. 

Community Directories

Asian Business & Community Directory: Minnesota Edition.
Includes advertisements in Asian languages.
St. Paul, Minn.: Asian Business & Community Publishing, Inc., 1989/90.

Directory of Asian American Artists & Arts Organizations in the Twin Cities.
St. Paul, Minn.: Asian American Renaissance, 1996-   

Directory of Asian American Community Organizations in the Twin Cities.
Minneapolis: Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, 1995-    .

Minneapolis-St. Paul Chinese Directory, 1970.
In English and Chinese.
Wanchai, Hong Kong: Printed by Tin Sing Print. Press, [1970].

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