Historical Portrait
Chizuye Kato and Friend - Japanese-American Girls Portrait
Archive record
Public domain 1919 portrait of Chizuye Kato and another Japanese-American girl. Historical family photograph documenting early 20th century immigrant community.
About this photograph
This 1919 portrait shows Chizuye Kato with another Japanese-American girl, part of the documentation collected by the Alameda Japanese American History Project.
The photograph dates to the tail end of a great wave of immigration to the United States. Between roughly 1880 and 1920, some 20 million people arrived, most from southern and eastern Europe, though Japanese immigrants also came during this period. Studio portraits often marked these journeys, made at home to leave with family or created soon after arrival and sent back as proof of safe passage and employment.
The archive describes this as a family photograph documenting the early twentieth-century immigrant community. Like many such images, it serves as evidence of lives built in a new country during a period of massive demographic change.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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