In Search of Gold Mountain: Chinese Immigration and the California Gold Rush

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 drew thousands of people from across the United States, Latin America, and China. The Gold Rush permanently changed the landscape, demographics, and economy of the nation and provoked cultural tensions among the settlers. In this virtual conversation, Yechen Zhao, the Marcia Brady Tucker Fellow in the Department of Photography, and John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Curator of American Decorative Arts, use objects in the exhibition Gold in America: Artistry, Memory, Power as the basis for a larger discussion of the Chinese immigrant experience in the American West. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund.