The collection includes:

1) [Five Advertisements for Barney O'Conner's Drug Stores]. Seattle, ca. 1937.

Five advertisements on stiff pink card, header with a portrait of the O’Conner next to the details of his three stores: Olympic Hotel Pharmacy, Sorrento Pharmacy, and Fifth Avenue Drug Company; and beneath eight columns of printed Chinese script listing the main telephone no. of the Sorrento store (MA 0444) pharmaceuticals as well as fragrances and their delivery terms. Cards are little faded, lower corner of one a little creased, but overall in very good condition.

2) Yuen Hing & Co. [Two letterhead invoices, two merchant receipts and one handwritten scrap]. San Francisco, ca. 1930s.

Letterhead ca. 10 ½ x 5 ¾ in. Receipts 7 ½ x 4 in. Completed in ink and graphite. Letterheads with light browning and wear, each with pin holes (likely from a grocer's spike), receipt torn with no loss, overall all in good condition.

Rare Chinatown ephemera from 1930s San Francisco. Yuen Hing & Co were successful wholesale grocers and exporters, listed at 1016–1020 Grant Ave, the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown. A Hing Yuen grocer was listed in Santa Barbara's Chinatown of the same period.

3) Mow Fung Co. [Thirty printed letterhead retail receipts]. San Francisco, ca. 1940s.

Ca. 11 x 5 ¾ in. With workings and notes completed in Chinese script in black ink. Each sheet with a printed scrolling or foliate border in green (three in a lighter shade), Mow Fung Co.'s details printed at the top with their specialties printed in Chinese script in 19 short columns. Paper rather toned, most pierced by a grocer's spike, original folds & creases, some edge chips, the paper stock age-toned, but in good condition.

Interesting retail ephemera from the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown. Mow Fung Co.'s noted specialties included coconut sugar and melon slices as well as traditional Chinese vegetables and herbal remedies. They were listed in the San Francisco Chinese American Directory for 1949, and appear to have been prosperous, announcing their intention to open in Dabu (Guangdong Province).

4) Sam Lee [Twenty Five retail receipts]. Marysville, ca. 1940s.

Most ca. 8 x 5 in, one larger ca. 9 ¾ x 8 in. Most receipts are ink-stamped: “Sam Lee, Marysville, Calif.” (these with an additional stamped line of Chinese script, likely referring to Marysville as the “Third City” of Californian Chinese diaspora after San Francisco and Sacramento); and a few “Sam Lee 102 C. St. marysville calif.”, three with indistinct Chinese stamps in red, all with jottings or repetitive script in indistinct Chinese characters in black ink or graphite. Age toning, stamped text fading, creases and folds, most pierced by a retailers’ or office spike, in good condition.

5) The Fuyo Company (The Basket House) [Twenty carbon typescripts on business letterhead]. San Francisco. July – December 1913.

Ca. 10 ¾ x 8 ⅓ in. Mail order bond paper, all with dual file punch holes at the top, some with corrections in pencil or pen. Age-toned, minor edge tears and wear, overall in good condition.

Сourtesy dispatch letters (with manuscript corrections) from the Fuyo Company of 372–374 Sutter Street in San Francisco. Headquartered in Kobe and owned by the Fujiwara clan, the company imported baskets to its San Francisco address in the “Many thousands, Different shapes, bronze baskets in stock”. Spanning a 6 month period, the letters are to private, retail (amongst others: the Preston Kram Novelty Co. in Los Angeles; the Rehdorf’s Exclusive Wicker-Ware Shop in San Jose) and one university customer: a Miss Jessie Rambo in the Dep’t. of Home Economics, West State Normal College, Canyon Texas who is planning a Japanese party (Fuyo advises that “Sho-Yu” sauce is in stock, is very delicious and an indispensable sauce for Japanese cuisine).

Overall, a significant collection documenting business activities on the West Coast by Chinese and Japanese immigrants.