Stories and Voices from L.A. Chinatown is the first in the series Archive Alive, a new collaboration between The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens; the Library Foundation of Los Angeles; and the Los Angeles Public Library. Archive Alive activates historic photographs, documents, and maps drawn from the Huntington’s and LAPL’s vast collections through online exhibitions, site-specific installations and displays, and interviews with community members, whose personal reflections and connections bring the archives to life. You can explore these materials by theme below.

You can explore these materials by online or visit the outdoor exhibition in Chinatown at 942 N Hill Street.

Stories of Sugar Hill presented by Friends Of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles

Map and guidebook available for download on February 13, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. for FREE!

Stories of Sugar Hill is a seven-stop self-guided Trail map accompanied by  in-depth research that celebrates the influential legends, icons, and trailblazers of West Adams’ Black history.

This project supports the neighborhood’s efforts in collecting, archiving, and sharing the stories of West Adams by working with residents of the area.

The experience is told through the neighborhood’s historic and unique architecture and is led by narrative accounts and reflections of the residents themselves.

The accompanying map and research will be accessible for download on February 13, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. on the FORT website.

Participants can log onto the FORT website and download the material for FREE, and take the self-guided tour at their leisure.

Nicole Chung heard her adoption story as a comforting, prepackaged myth. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets—vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong.

Register using the website for the Zoom link.

Spend an afternoon at a special collection of the LA County Library that encompasses academic materials, film, music, novels, magazines, and newspapers. The collection focuses on the Asian American Pacific Islander American experience, with core holdings in history, art, and culture. The center has over 100 titles on microfilm of historical Asian immigrant newspapers published in the US.

This project honors the spirit and talent of George Hoshida, an incarcerated artist who documented life with pencil and brushwork in a series of notebooks he kept between 1942 and 1945. Through examples of Hoshida’s artwork and personal correspondence with his family, this site hopes to provide insight into one individual’s incarceration experience.

This exhibition highlights an artist’s rare photographs of the Japanese American community in Los Angeles prior to World War II and of urban life in Hiroshima prior to the 1945 atomic bombing of the city.