Bonner (Mitchell I.) photographs and ephemera, 1974-2023

View only results with digital items
Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Title:
Mitchell I. Bonner photographs and ephemera
Dates:
1974-2023
Creators:
Bonner, Mitchell I.
Abstract:
This collection comprises approximately 3,000 photographs and slides taken by Mitchell Bonner between 1975 and 2001, as well as printed ephemera collected by him through 2015. The images document Iu Mien, Lao, Khmer, Vietnamese, and Cambodian community social and cultural events throughout Northern California, primarily the San Francisco Bay area. The emphasis is on Laotian American communities. The ephemera includes programs, posters and flyers from cultural, religious, and popular culture events, refugee publications, pamphlets and brochures from refugee assistance agencies, and other materials related to social services, education, and refugees. The collection also includes a small amount of material documenting other Asian American communities in California, including Burmese, Thai, Filipino, and Tibetan.
Extent:
7.7 Linear Feet (10 boxes, 2 oversized folders 275 digitized images) and 4.0 unprocessed linear feet
Language:
Collection materials are in English and several Southeast Asian languages, including Burmese, Lao, and Vietnamese.
Preferred citation:

Mitchell I. Bonner photographs and ephemera. MS-SEA006. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection comprises approximately 3,000 photographs and slides taken by Mitchell Bonner between 1975 and 2001, as well as printed ephemera collected by him through 2014. The images document Iu Mien, Lao, Khmer, Vietnamese, and Cambodian community social and cultural events throughout Northern California, primarily the San Francisco Bay area. The emphasis is on Laotian American communities. The ephemera includes programs, posters and flyers from cultural, religious, and popular culture events, refugee publications, pamphlets and brochures from refugee assistance agencies, and other materials related to social services, education, and refugees. The collection also includes a small amount of material documenting other Asian American communities in California, including Burmese, Thai, Filipino, and Tibetan.

Biographical / historical:

Mitchell I. Bonner has been active in the San Francisco Bay area's Southeast Asian American communities since 1975, when the first Lao and Hmong refugees moved to the area. Over the years Bonner has documented both daily life and special community events, through photographing private and public activities in the Southeast Asian community. His photographs include images dating from a 1975 Christmas party for Vietnamese refugees at San Francisco's International Student Center, to a 2000 Laos New Year's celebration in Richmond, California.

Bonner has traveled to Laos four times, and has helped to organize various Laotian festivals and dances. He was a volunteer with the International Student Center in San Francisco until it closed at the end of 1976. Many Vietnamese refugee students used the center, which offered inexpensive cultural and recreational activities and a dining room for international students at San Francisco colleges and universities. It was there that Bonner met a Lao-Vietnamese man, who introduced him to the arriving Lao and Hmong refugees being settled into San Francisco. Bonner was also introduced to Southeast Asian refugees in the San Francisco neighborhood where he lived, which was the original receiving neighborhood in that city for Southeast Asian refugees. Bonner owns a personal Southeast Asia collection of over 3,000 items on Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, including books, audio and video recordings, documents and maps, and handicraft items.

Acquisition information:
Gifts of Mitchell I. Bonner, 1997-2023.
Processing information:

Processed by Karen Rosen, 2002. Additions added by Zoe MacLeod, 2018, 2022. Additions added by Hanako Ishizuka-Gunderson, 2024.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged in two series:

  • Series 1. Visual materials, 1975-2001. 2 linear feet
  • Series 2. Printed ephemera, 1976-2002. 2 linear feet

The collection also contains six unprocessed additions:

  • Accession 2002.035. Unprocessed addition 2002-2006, 1980-2006 (Bulk, 2001-2002). 2 linear feet
  • Accession 2012.039. Unprocessed addition 2012, 2006-2012. 0.3 linear feet
  • Accession 2014.008. Unprocessed addition 2014, (1974, 1979, 2003-2014, Bulk 2011-2013). 0.5 linear feet
  • Accession 2018.031. Unprocessed addition 2018, (2011-2015). 0.4 linear feet
  • Accession 2019.038. Unprocessed addition 2019, (2018-2019). 0.4 linear feet
  • Unprocessed additions 2022, (2014-2021). 1.0 linear feet

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Karen Rosen, 2002; updated by Dawn Schmitz, 2011; Audra Eagle Yun, 2012; Sara Seltzer, 2014; Zoe MacLeod, 2018 and 2022; and Hanako Ishizuka-Gunderson, 2024.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-02-04 10:46:27 -0800 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Processed components of the collection are open for research. Unprocessed additions may contain restricted materials. Please contact the Department of Special Collections and Archives in advance to request access.

Terms of access:

Property rights reside with the University of California. Copyrights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

Preferred citation:

Mitchell I. Bonner photographs and ephemera. MS-SEA006. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Location of this collection:
Southeast Asian Archive
The UCI Libraries, P.O. Box 19557
Irvine, CA 92623-9557, US
Contact:
(949) 824-3947
spcoll@uci.libanswers.com
Website