110 results for: Asian American
Bocco jewelry box, 1990s
This Bocco jewelry box is from Boma, a jewelry company founded in Seattle in 1981 by Boon and Chieko Chaya. Bocco was the name of their retail location in Westlake in the 1990s. In earlier years of the company’s history, Boma’s marketing and designs rarely highlighted the founders’ Asian heritage and connections, as was common in the jewelry industry at…
ID Number:2022.5.RefBox1
Date:Circa 1990
Boma jewelry box, 2021
Boma is a jewelry company founded in Seattle in 1981 by Boon and Chieko Chaya. Their daughter Suzanne Vetillart became CEO in 2016.
ID Number:2022.5.RefBox2
Date:2021
Campaign button pin for Pramila Jayapal for Congress, 2016
Pramila Jayapal (b. 1965), a member of the Democratic party, successfully ran for the position of US Representative from Washington's 7th congressional district in 2016. Jayapal represented the 37th legislative district in the Washington State Senate from 2015 to 2017. She is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the US House of Representatives and the first Asian American to…
ID Number:2022.8.2
Date:2016
Seattle World's Fair medal, designed by George Tsutakawa, 1962
Born in Seattle and raised there and in Japan, George Tsutakawa (1910-1997) was an internationally recognized painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde fountain designs. He taught in the art and architecture departments at the university of Washington for 34 years, retiring in 1976. He described the design for this coin as follows: “The spirit of Century 21 is…
ID Number:2022.44.2
Date:1962
Souvenir pearl from the Japanese Village at the Seattle World's Fair, 1962
This is a souvenir pearl from the Japanese Village at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. One of the main attractions was a live demonstration of pearl diving by six female divers from the Iseshima pearl area near Nagoya, Japan. The divers would bring up pearls from a 12-foot pool and sell them to spectators for $1.25 each. The Japanese…
ID Number:2023.19.2
Date:1962
Scroll featuring a hand-written Seattle SuperSonics poem and artwork by Sharon Chow, ca. 1981
The author and artist of this poem, Sharon Chow, submitted this work as part of a contest to nominate a Sonics fan. Sharon chose to nominate her father, Jan Wong, and created this scroll featuring not only the poem but detailed painted images of several members of the Sonics team including Lenny Wilkins (coach), Downtown Freddy Brown, Jack Sikma, Lonnie…
ID Number:2023.40.1
Date:Circa 1980-1981
Swing from the Chong Wa Benevolent Association Chinese school playground, 1929
Established in 1892, the Chong Wa Benevolent Association was originally created to aid Chinese Americans with housing, employment, and to mediate disputes in the community. The Association constructed a building in 1929 at the corner of Seventh Avenue South and Weller Street to carry out these activities and house a school for Chinese American children. Today, it serves as a…
ID Number:2025.10.1
Date:1929
Puget Sound Freight Lines jacket, worn by Tom Kitano, 1990s
This jacket belonged to Tom Takashi Kitano (1929-2019) who worked as a controller for Puget Sound Freight Lines. Kitano began working at Puget Sound Freight after he graduated from the University of Washington. Except for the two years when he was drafted into the United States Army as part of the 10th Mountain Division Artillery, Kitano spent his entire career…
ID Number:2025.36.1
Date:Circa 1994
Growler bottle from Georgetown Brewing Company, ca. 2018
Georgetown Brewery was founded by Manuel "Manny" Chao and Roger Bialous in 2003. Manny, the son of Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, was working for Mac and Jack's Brewing in the mid-1990s when he first met Roger. But it wasn't until 2002 that they partnered up and started brewing together. Manny's Pale Ale was an instant major hit in the local…
ID Number:2026.4.2
Date:2018
"Ma-Chiong" set from the Admiral Oriental Line, ca. 1923
The Admiral Line (also American Mail Line, and later Admiral Oriental Line) was a steamship company based in Seattle which operated five ocean liners sailing from Seattle to Japan and China. This Ma-Chiong set was distributed to passengers during the 11-day trip from Seattle to Asia. “Ma-Chiong” appears to be a different transliteration of the Chinese game Mahjong.
ID Number:2026.6.1
Date:Circa 1923