Watercolours varies in sizes from ca. 32 x 25,3 cm. (12.5 x 10 in.) to 26,2 x 20,5 cm. (10¼ x 8 in.) , ink drawings are 26,2 x 23 cm. (10¼ x 9 in.)  to 24,2 x 16 cm. (9,5 x 6,5 in.). No folds or creases, in very good condition. 

Eva Chang was born in Sacramento in 1897. Her father was a Chinese printer and hotel manager who immigrated to America in 1882. According to the Asian American Art Index, Chang’s mother “may have been a Shoshone Native American.” The family moved to San Francisco in 1901, relocated to the East Bay after the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, and returned to the city in 1916.

Eva spent seven years in China from 1918 to 1925 with her future husband, Bo Kay Chan, studying art, music, and Chinese language in Guangzhou and Shanghai. Upon returning to San Francisco, the couple settled in Chinatown and lived above the Sun Sing Center, where Eva Fong also performed, according to some sources. She began studying at the California School of Fine Arts and soon after joined the Chinese Revolutionary Artists Club, originally founded by Yun Gee—becoming its first female member. The Club was visited by Diego Rivera in the early 1930s. Chang became one of the first Asian American female artists to widely exhibit her work; the de Young Museum showed her art in November 1935, alongside other Chinese American artists of San Francisco associated with the Nam Kue Academy.

The archive consists of the artist’s self-portrait in ink, showing her at her work station with the image of an ocean steamer framed next to a window; four landscapes—two in watercolor and two in ink—depicting wooden walkways and buildings by the water, dated August 2, 1936; and the landscape with the path leading to a shack in the field, dated November 11, 1935. Also included are two studies of a backyard—likely the artist’s own—both signed but undated; two ink drawings of drapery and plaids; and a detailed study of a Native American rawhide cradle in watercolor and ink (the largest work in the archive); two floral design patterns, possibly intended for textiles or wallpaper; two watercolor color wheels, one with an explanatory note by the artist; and three sheets showing the “palette-bed” for various ink techniques—variations of lines and patterns used in her drawings—one bearing two handwritten notes: “Drawn Slowly With Even Pressure” and “Drawn Quickly With Freedom.”

Overall, a distinctive archive of an important San Francisco artist from her most active period, which shows the places she worked, her painting and color techniques, as well as the design elements and Native American household items that artist took an interest in.