A Message From AIISF’s Executive Director

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the National Museum of African American History (NMAAH) in Washington, DC for the first time. The museum’s lower levels focus on themes of slavery, freedom, segregation, and the civil rights movement. Walking through these exhibits, I was reminded of how museums and monuments can reinforce – and in many cases enhance – what we learn or don’t learn in school. Other exhibits at NMAAH celebrate the contributions and legacies of many different leaders, artists, musicians, and other trailblazers. The whole experience encourages you to learn, reflect, consider, and connect.

For those whose individual, family, and community histories are directly connected to the NMAAH’s themes and exhibits, I am sure that there is a deep sense of feeling seen, heard, and progress toward justice. The recent creation of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument is another important step in ensuring that our country’s histories, particularly our darkest and most difficult ones, are not forgotten.

AIISF is proud to serve on the task force to establish the National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture. While it will be many years before the museum is built, it is an important step towards ensuring the meaningful inclusion of Asian and Pacific Islander communities in DC's museum landscape.

Like NMAAH, the encouragement to learn, reflect, consider, and connect is interwoven into the exhibits and programs at Angel Island. Regardless of your family’s heritage and journeys, we hope that you leave with a strong sense of connection to the diverse experiences of racism, detention, exclusion, hope, and determination that Angel Island symbolizes. And that you feel inspired to help champion the site and its histories.

Here are a few easy ways you can help:

1. If your child or grandchild goes to school in the Bay Area, then tell their teachers about our Field Trip Scholarship Fund (see below).

2. Over the next few months, we will host more storytelling trainings and storyshare events. Stay tuned and sign up!

3. If it’s been a while since you’ve visited Angel Island, we hope you start planning for your next visit. 

We look forward to seeing you back at Angel Island!

Edward Tepporn

AIISF Executive Director

Fall Field Trip Scholarships

Teachers! Time to book your field trips to Angel Island this fall. Spaces are limited. Once you have booked your tour date with State Parks here, apply for a scholarship from us here.

We prioritize funding Title I schools as much as we can, but scholarships are available to all classes grades 4-12.

New Exhibit Now on View

Chinese Pioneers: Power and Politics in Exclusion Era Photographs

July 14 to September 3, 2023 | Immigration Station

Chinese Pioneers explores the social, political, and judicial disenfranchisement of Chinese Californians and moments of Chinese agency and resilience in the decades before and after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

The exhibit examines how photography played an important role in Chinese people’s interactions with the dominant culture and the government’s fledgling registration, identification, and surveillance systems.

About

Chinese Pioneers is an exhibit by the California Historical Society and touring through Exhibit Envoy. Institutional support is provided by San Francisco Grants for the Arts and Yerba Buena Community Benefit District. The Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation supported the first 6 bookings of this exhibition.

Explore Bay Area History — Iconic America: The Golden Gate Bridge (PBS)

Episode 8 of the PBS series Iconic America examines the cultural significance of the Golden Gate Bridge, highlighting a few unsung heroes, including Katherine Toy’s grandfather, Wallace Fong (pictured). Katherine Toy, AIISF's first Executive Director and 2023 recipient of the Spirit of Angel Island award, shares that in the mid-1930s, her grandfather used his expertise in electricity and power to draw the circuitry and design the original lighting for the Golden Gate Bridge, which opened on May 27, 1937.

Learn more by reading the San Francisco Standard article, or stream the episode for free on pbs.org.

Join Looking Glass for a Photo Tour on Angel Island

Photographers from Berkeley's Looking Glass Photo & Camera toured the Immigration Station last week in preparation for a group photography adventure on the island. Read more about their trip to the island here and sign up to stay notified about the upcoming day trip.

Research Opportunity: Ancestry.com's New Chinese Exclusion Era Collection

Ancestry.com released a new database in June, compiling over half a million digitized records from the Chinese exclusion era. The collection includes ship passenger manifests, immigration case files, and other official documents that could help descendants learn more about their family history.

Explore the collection HERE and learn more about the release in this article from the Washington Post.

Host our Traveling Exhibit!

Taken From Their Families: Japanese American Incarceration on Angel Island During World War II explores the events and policies that led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during the war and presents stories from 24 individuals from Hawai`i and the West Coast whose lives were forever changed after December 7, 1941.

Learn more about hosting the exhibit HERE.