Historical Portrait
Daisy Joe Fung in old Chinatown in Tulare, California
Archive record
Daisy Joe Fung at the wheel of a touring car in old Chinatown, Tulare, California, 1919. Public-domain historical photograph from the Internet Archive.
About this photograph
The archive record identifies the woman at the wheel as Daisy Joe Fung and places her in Tulare's old Chinatown in 1919. No other information about her survives in the record.
Tulare County sits in California's San Joaquin Valley, where irrigated farming drew settlers through the late nineteenth century. The county library's holdings document local families, businesses and everyday life rather than notable figures.
The photograph shows an era when automobiles remained expensive and touring cars particularly so, suggesting the driver's family had achieved some prosperity. That a woman posed alone at the wheel was less common in 1919 than it would become in later decades, though not unknown.
The record notes this scene comes from old Chinatown, indicating Tulare once had a concentrated Chinese neighbourhood. Many California valley towns developed such districts as Chinese immigrants came to work in agriculture and related businesses during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By identifying the location as old Chinatown, the archive signals that this particular neighbourhood no longer exists in its original form.
The photographer remains unknown. The image reached this archive through California Revealed, a statewide digitisation programme that makes historical material from local institutions publicly available.
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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