May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success.
National Park Service Celebrates Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have a rich heritage thousands of years old and have both shaped the history of the United States and had their lives dramatically influenced by moments in its history. Every May during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and throughout the year, the National Park Service and its partners share those histories and the continuing culture thriving in parks and communities today.
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Image credit: Hula performance at the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park's 32nd Annual Cultural Festival (National Park Service).
Chiura Obata: American Modern
The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Chiura Obata: American Modern exhibition features 150 paintings and personal effects by one of the most significant California-based artists and Japanese American cultural leaders of the twentieth century.
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Image credit: Chiura Obata, Silence, Last Twilight on an Unknown Lake, Johnson Peak, 1930, color woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Obata Family, 2000.76.18, ©1989, Lillian Yuri Kodani.
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Site from the National Archives
The National Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the Asian and Pacific Islanders experience, and highlights these resources online, in programs, and through traditional and social media.
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Image credit: Copy of group photo submitted in 12017/2720; (From File Unit: Return Certificate Application Case File of Chinese Departing -- Arthur F. Lym (12017/5542), 1894 - 1915.) https://catalog.archives.gov/id/296489
Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar
In 1943, Ansel Adams, America's most well-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans interned there during World War II. For the first time, digital scans of both Adams's original negatives and his photographic prints appear side by side allowing viewers to see Adams's darkroom technique, in particular, how he cropped his prints.
Image credit: Entrance to Manzanar, Manzanar Relocation Center / photograph by Ansel Adams. Library of Congress
Asian Pacific Americans: Going for Broke | Stories from the Veterans History Project
Asian Pacific Americans made lasting contributions to America's wartime efforts. Collected stories highlight their service from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq.
Go the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project »
Image Credit: Grant Hirabayashi, Chungking, China [March 1945] (Library of Congress)
For Teachers
Put the power of primary sources to work in the classroom. Browse ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides and research aids.
Educational Resources »
Image credit: Five Asian children holding up small barbells (Library of Congress)
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