Longevity: The Archaeology of a Chinese Gift Store and Restaurant in Eugene, Oregon’s, Market District

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the span of more than a year from 2019 to 2020, University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History archaeologists monitored construction work for an affordable housing project in downtown Eugene, Oregon. During the monitoring, Chinese artifacts were found, which opened a window onto the poorly documented history of diasporic Chinese immigrants in Eugene. Archival research, artifact analysis, and a combination of newspaper articles and advertisements revealed the story of a Chinese-American family (Wing Kee and Marie Westfall) living in Oregon and owning and operating a restaurant and gift shop in the early 20th century against a backdrop of both national Chinese exclusion laws and Oregon-specific prohibitions against Chinese ownership of property.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36866.0