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On the Wagon Train

On the Wagon Train Family with Their Covered Wagon During the Great Western Migration, 1866. Family with Their Covered Wagon During the Great Western Migration, 1866. WPA Information Division Photographic Index, ca. 1936 - ca. 1942; Records of the Work Projects Administration, Record Group 69; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD, NARA. Document Text Summary Saturday, September 10th  It would be useless for me with my pencil to describe the awful road we have just passed over. Let fancy picture a train of wagons and cattle passing through a crooked chimney and we have Big Laurel Hill. After descending several bad hills, one called Little Laurel Hill, which I thought is as bad as could be, but in reality it was nothing to this last

2022-12-06T10:43:40-05:00
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Sex Trafficking

Sex Trafficking “The Man Filled Both My Hands With Gold and I Then Became His Slave” “The Man Filled Both My Hands With Gold and I Then Became His Slave,” The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]), 02 April 1899. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Sex work in the American West has been romanticized in popular culture. But the reality was often much bleaker. For example, the arrival of thousands of single Chinese men during the California Gold Rush created a huge demand for Chinese sex workers. But the Chinese women and girls brought to the U.S. to fulfill this demand often had little choice in the matter. Some were kidnapped. Some were sold by their impoverished families. Some were fooled into

2023-04-04T09:09:38-04:00
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Life Story: Ah Yuen

Life Story: Ah Yuen China Mary, ca. 1930. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Photofile: China Mary. China Mary, ca. 1930. University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Photofile: China Mary. The first thing to know about Ah Yuen is that many parts of her life are shrouded in mystery. For example, even the name we know her as was probably not her given name. Yuen is a Cantonese surname, but the word “Ah” is similar to the word “Miss” in English. So, the name Ah Yuen translates to “Miss Yuen.” Her personal name has been lost.  Historians know that Ah Yuen arrived in the U.S. around the year 1863, and that she was probably born between 1848 and 1854. This means that she was incredibly young when

2023-02-07T12:28:59-05:00
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Immigrant Nurses

Immigrant Nurses Maria Jayme’s nurse’s cap Nurse’s cap, ca. 1991. Gift of Maria Reyna Legaspi, National Museum of American History. The Philippines became an American colony after the Spanish-American War in 1898. The American government established nursing programs in the Philippines as part of an effort to “civilize” the population and prepare immigrant nurses to work in the United States. Following Philippine independence in 1946, the American government allowed Filipina nurses, who were almost all women, to work in the United States through a visitor program. The Immigration Act of 1965 made it easier to immigrate. That same year, the creation of Medicare and Medicaid provided millions more Americans with healthcare access. Facing a shortage of nurses, hospitals advertised work opportunities in the United States to

2022-12-05T11:19:34-05:00
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Handcart Pioneers

Handcart Pioneers Handcart Pioneers William Henry Jackson, "Handcart Pioneer. Converts of the Mormon Faith pushing and pulling their laden carts to a new homeland in the valleys of the mountains" ca. 1930-1941. L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Document Text Summary Manifest Destiny My parents left a comfortable home and surroundings for the Gospel’s sake and came out into a wilderness and endured every hardship in obedience to the call of God. My parents left our comfortable home and went to settle the west because they believed God wanted them to. Crossing the Plains The men set to work making handcarts and my father, being a carpenter, helped to make thirty-three of them. Ours was a small two wheeled vehicle with two

2022-12-06T10:33:58-05:00
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