#PB52
Ca. 1929 – early 1930s
Oblong Quarto album ca. 18x28 cm (7 x 11 in). 48 card stock leaves (34 blank). With 76 mounted and 7 loosely inserted gelatin silver photos, including over thirty large images from ca. 8,5x14,5 cm (3 ½ x 5 ½ in) to ca. 4,5x7 cm (1 ¾ x 2 ¾ in). About a dozen photos with period ink captions on recto or verso; two photos with period ink stamps “James United Photo Service, Los Angeles, Feb. 25, 1935.” Period brown full cloth boards fastened with a string. Binding slightly rubbed on extremitis, several images slightly faded, but overall a very good album.
Historically significant collection of original photos, taken and collected by a young Chinese American aircraft mechanic or engineer and showing his life and work in Los Angeles in the late 1920s – early 1930s. The first photo in the album shows a group of young Asian men in mechanics’ uniforms and civil suits, posing in front of the entrance to “Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute” – an early U.S. professional trade school in aeronautical engineering and mechanics opened in the Glendale suburb of Los Angeles in 1929. Over a dozen photos show the compiler, other Asian and Caucasian American mechanics and engineers posing next to various planes, on airfields (a sign on a building on one of the photos reads “Nicholas-Beazley Aiplane Co.”); two images portray the compiler and a Chinese woman standing next to a plane and wearing aviator goggles and helmets. Several photos show the compiler and his friends next to their automobiles or in mechanical workshops; one image depicts the entrance to “Q & M Garage, Expert auto electrician.” The other images show beach parties, walks in a Japanese garden in Los Angeles, and the compiler’s family and friends. There are also photos of Hollywood with the Roosevelt Hotel, a “Southern Pacific Golden Gate Ferries Ltd. ferry,” “Santa Clara” ferry of the same company, &c. Overall, an interesting visual source on the history of the Chinese American community in Los Angeles and its input into the Californian aviation industry in the late 1920s – early 1930s.
A list of captions: Hollywood, California; Japanese gardens, Hollywood; Venice Ocean; Hollywood (caption on verso: “Japanese garden, Hollywood, Calif. 1929”); San Pedro (caption on verso: “Hellen Wong”); Radondo Beach (caption on verso: “Maria & Mrs. Wong”); Radondo Beach (caption on verso: “Manhattan Beach, July 1930”); Radondo Beach; Dr. & Mrs. Shaw; San Pedro (same caption on verso); Long beach pier (caption on verso); San Pedro (caption on verso); City Hall (caption on verso).
