Pittsburgh’s Chinatown: A Study of Chinese Diaspora Archaeology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the 19th century, there was a dramatic increase in emigration out of southern China, with many moving to the United States. With the move of Chinese immigrants into the US, Chinatowns also began to develop in urban centers throughout the country. Chinese diaspora archaeology studies these communities, with a majority of the work done in the western United States where the communities were often most concentrated. However, after the end of the Gold Rush and the Transcontinental Railroad, Chinese diaspora communities began to spread east, with a community settling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1870s. This Chinatown, much like other East Coast Chinatowns, has had very little research done on the community that lived there. This thesis focuses on Pittsburgh’s Chinatown through historical research, geospatial analysis, public outreach, and geophysical survey to explore the size, layout, and impact of the Boulevard of the Allies on the Chinatown. The goal of this research is to both gain an understanding of the community that lived there, as well as the true extent of the Chinatown in its prime to show how the expansion of roads near the Chinatown contributed to its decline.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39476.0