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Asian American Archival Resources: Digital Archival Collections

Digital Collections

Below are some digital resources that are accessible from other museums, libraries, and archives. Many of these resources include oral histories, videos, photographs, correspondence, newspapers, and other analog materials that have been digitized. There are more digital collections out there, this is not an exhaustive list, we will continue to add more digital collections. 

Japanese American Digital Archives

  • Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive (JARDA): A project that began in 1998, focused on providing a single digital point of access to materials held by California universities, historical societies, archives, and museums on the subject of Japanese American relocation and incarceration during World War II. 
  • Japanese American National Museum: These digital collections focus on correspondence, journals, photography, as well as highlighting some the papers, prints, paintings, and drawings of some Japanese American artists. (You can also access some of the collection via Calisphere here)
  • National Archives: This resource mostly focuses on materials related to Japanese American internment and relocation during World War II through photographs and genealogical records. 
  • Densho: A digital archive focused on preserving the stories of Japanese American's through oral histories, as well as newspapers, letters, and photographs.

Asian American Digital Archives

  • California Cultures: Asian Americans: This features several collections focusing on the Gold Rush era, the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882, Japanese American internment during World War II, and every day life during the early 20th century.

South Asian American Digital Archives

Chinese American Digital Archives

  • Museum of Chinese in America: Focused on preserving  and sharing the history of Chinese Americans. This digital collection specifically has some great resources geographically derived from the United States' east coast.