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From 1853 to 2003: One Hundred Fifty Years of Witness and Community

From 1853 to 2003: One Hundred Fifty Years of Witness and Community is an exhibit of old and new photographs that depict life at the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown (San Francisco, CA) over the past fifteen decades. It celebrates the role played by this institution in gathering together a community, giving its life shared meaning, and enabling it to be of service to the world. One component of the larger Historical Documentation (HDoc) Project at the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, the exhibit serves as the public education element of HDoc and comprises some seventy images chosen from among over two thousand in the archives assembled by the project.

With accompanying text in both English and Chinese, the images in the exhibit are distributed among fourteen panels, each measuring 40 inches wide by 84 inches long and designed to resemble a Chinese scroll with dowels across the top and bottom. Two panels are devoted to exhibit titles and credits (one in English and one in Chinese), and the remaining twelve are divided into six thematic groupings:

A Project Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation

Project Partners:

  • PANA Institute (Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion), Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA

  • Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, San Francisco, CA

  • The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley

Project Director:

  • Christopher Chua

Project Photographers (2001–2003 photographs):

  • Christopher Chua

  • Norman Fung

  • Joe Tanizawa

Project Task Group at the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown:

  • Jeanette Huie

  • Wendy Lam

  • Nicholas Li

  • Sammy Louie

  • David Soohoo

Special Thanks to:

  • Theresa Salazar, Curator of the Bancroft Collection, Western Americana, The Bancroft Library

  • Doreen Der McLeod, Executive Director, Donaldina Cameron House

Exhibit Opening:

  • November 9, 2003

Exhibit Text:

  • Christopher Chua

Translation into Chinese:

  • Nicholas Li

Graphic Design:

  • Sharon Fukutome Design

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