{"id":2880,"date":"2023-12-05T10:53:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T15:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2024-07-26T13:19:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T17:19:12","slug":"the-wong-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/2023\/12\/05\/the-wong-family\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wong Family Photograph Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

By Mattes Brown ’26, Photography, Fall 2023 Intern<\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The following post has been adapted from a series of Instagram posts available on the Alden Library Instagram<\/a> account.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n

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The Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections fall internships are wrapping up! As winter break grows closer, inte<\/em>rns are finalizing their work at the archives. Mattes Brown one of six fall interns this semester has been vigorously sorting through the last few items of the Wong Family Photograph Collection. View the finding aid for the collection here<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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A table spread with photos and folders whilst processing the photographs.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Student Mattes Brown beginning to sort through the Wong Family photographs.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Sorting photos by person.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My project this semester was to arrange and describe a collection of over 1,000 unidentified family snapshots. These photos range from the 1920\u2019s to the 1960\u2019s. Through hours of looking and sorting I was able to identify some of the individuals, their relationships to each other, and even found the family house on Google Maps! The Wong\u2019s lived in Alameda County, California. We don\u2019t know much about how the collection came to be at Ohio University, but there is a dealer\u2019s description leading us to believe this collection was at one point bought by a collector or the University.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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The Wong family home (Alameda County, California) which is still standing today<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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The story I have uncovered in these photos is quite complex. They are primarily family photographs of the Wong Family, a large Chinese American family living in Alameda, California from the 1940\u2019s- 1960\u2019s. They had a passion for photography, each family member meticulously documented. One of my favorite discoveries was a group of portraits of May Wong. I\u2019ve included some of them in this post, she is by far the most photographed family member. Her portraits remind me of the modern-day fit check, she\u2019s incredibly fashionable.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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Photos of a stylish May Wong<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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As I\u2019m getting to the end of this process, I\u2019m reminded of the excitement I had at the beginning of all this. Working with these photographs, these stories, has been a true journey. Right now, at the end, I\u2019ve already processed all the photographs and arranged them, I\u2019m now working on drafting a finding aid; This gives viewers a table of contents to better understand what is in the collection.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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Unsorted photos<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Ripped and torn scrapbook pages and unsorted photos<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Military related unsorted photos<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Two men posing with a large wheel<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Close up of unsorted photos<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Military related photo of Tachikawa base operations<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Men in military uniforms<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Men in military settings<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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1st Chinese American couple to be married in St. Mary’s Church in San Antonio newspaper clipping.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Group portrait of children sitting on steps<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Happy Holidays card from 1957<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Two sets of twins in the Wong family.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

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Overall working in the archives is fascinating. One day I’m organizing vintage outfit photographs; the next day all the family’s electrical bills; another I\u2019m trying to establish a family tree. At one point I spent a good deal of time just sorting through baby pictures. It\u2019s been rewarding, truly.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mattes Brown ’26, Photography, Fall 2023 Intern The following post has been adapted from a series of Instagram posts available on the Alden Library Instagram account. The Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections fall internships are wrapping up! As winter break grows closer, interns are finalizing their work at the archives. Mattes Brown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,6],"tags":[150,148,142,149],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internships","category-manuscript-collections","tag-california","tag-family-photography","tag-photographs","tag-wong-family"],"modified_by":"Greta Suiter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3611,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/3611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}