Official Map of Chinatown in San Francisco : prepared under the supervision of the special committee of the Board of Supervisors. July 1885.
- Title:
- Official Map of Chinatown in San Francisco : prepared under the supervision of the special committee of the Board of Supervisors. July 1885.
- Alternate Title:
- Official Map of Chinatown
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Farwell, Willard B.
- Other Creators:
- Kunkler, John E.
Pond, E.B.
- Date:
- 1885
- Posted Date:
- 2015-08-25
- ID Number:
- 1093.01
- File Name:
- PJM_1093_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1870 - 1899
- Subject:
- Poverty/Prostitution/Crime
Bias
Ethnocentrism - Measurement:
- 20 x 42 on sheet 22 x 54 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- As a "nation of immigrants," Americans have produced persuasive maps addressing the issues of immigration and nationality over most of the country's lifetime. The collection includes a number of these maps published since the 1840s. Some are welcoming, encouraging, and provide advice to immigrants. Some assert that the diversity of our nationalities is a source of strength for the country. And yet others attack immigrants in general, or specific ethnic or religious immigrant groups, particularly Asians, Catholics, and Jews. For the range of these maps, Search > "immigration.”
This map reflects the pervasive bias against the Chinese in California and in turn further fostered the hysteria. See generally Vaughan 2018, 132-39. It was published as part of an official report of a Special Committee established by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors "on the Condition of the Chinese Quarter." The Report resulted from a dramatic increase in hostility to the Chinese, particularly because many Chinese laborers had been driven out of other Western states by vigilantes and sought safety in San Francisco Shah 2001, 37. See Phaidon 2015, 30.
The substance and tone of the Report is best illustrated by a few excerpts: "The general aspect of the streets and habitations was filthy in the extreme, . . . a slumbering pest, likely at any time to generate and spread disease, . . . a constant source of danger . . . , the filthiest spot inhabited by men, women and children on the American continent." (Report 4-5). "The Chinese brought here with them and have successfully maintained and perpetuated the grossest habits of bestiality practiced by the human race." (Ibid. 38).
The map highlights the Committee's points, particularly the pervasiveness of gambling, prostitution and opium use. It shows the occupancy of the street floor of every building in Chinatown, color coded to show:
General Chinese Occupancy
Chinese Gambling Houses
Chinese Prostitution
Chinese Opium Resorts
Chinese Joss Houses and
White Prostitution.
The Report concludes with a recommendation that the Chinese be driven out of the City by stern enforcement of the law: "compulsory obedience to our laws [is] necessarily obnoxious and revolting to the Chinese; and the more rigidly this enforcement is insisted upon and carried out the less endurable will existence be to them here, the less attractive will life be to them in California. Fewer will come and fewer will remain. . . . Scatter them by such a policy as this to other States . . . ." (Ibid. 67-68).
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Farwell, Willard B. 1885. The Chinese at Home and Abroad. Together with the Report of the Special Committee of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco on the Condition of the Chinese Quarter of that City. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co.
- Repository:
- Private Collection of PJ Mode
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.