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Discover the curated images, videos, and primary sources featured throughout Foundations and Futures

History is more than just text on a page; it is the photographs, voices, and artifacts of the people who lived it. The images and recordings featured across Foundations and Futures are part of a meticulously curated media repository. Whether you are building a lesson plan or investigating an artifact, you can use this database to trace the provenance of our media: discover who created an asset, the historical context behind it, and how it can be used to bring Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences into your classroom.

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  • Video
    Music Battle Between Thai and Thai American Students

    This group of Thai American students traveled from Chicago to Thailand for a hammered dulcimer ‘music battle’ against a group of Thai students. Activities like this are often supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as ‘return to Thailand’ cultural exchange trips.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • Three people in professional attire stand on steps outside of wat facade. Between them they carry a light gray banner reading "'Save the Thai Temple."
    Image
    Wat Thai Berkeley

    Thais gather to support Wat Mongkolratanaram when neighbors sought to limit the weekly public brunch.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • Overhead shot of Thai dishes prepared and wrapped in aluminum ramekins and plastic to-go containers, atop table at outdoor market.
    Image
    Thai Street Market Prepared Food

    Various prepared foods on sale at the Sunday Thai Street Food Market.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • People gather in groups around wooden deck and water feature at outdoor food market. Some sit with food while others walk around landscaped perimeter.
    Image
    Thai Street Food Market Crowd

    Community members at the Sunday Thai Street Food Market gather throughout the Buddhist Center of Dallas to eat and relax.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • Two food service workers, masked and with hair coverings, prepare skewered meat on grill in outdoor tent. Beside them are more food vendors in tents.
    Image
    Thai Street Food Vendor

    Every Sunday, the Buddhist Center of Dallas hosts a Thai Street Food Market featuring various vendors preparing Thai cuisine.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • Colorfully dressed Thai dancers with tall, pointed gold headpieces lead outdoor procession, followed by men carrying Thai and US flags.
    Image
    Minnesota’s Songkran Festival

    At the Minnesota Songkran Festival, Thai dancers perform as flags for both the United States and Thailand are marched behind them.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • Two robed monks sit cross-legged next to each other on the carpeted floor next to a large gilded altar decorated with flowers, candles, and offerings.
    Image
    Wat Denver

    After the dedication of the new wat in Denver, Colorado in 1976, named Wat Buddhawararam, Phramahasobhin Sopako and Phramahachuan Charitdhammamo were the first two monks assigned to serve religious duties there.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • Well-dressed Thai garment workers gather for a large group photo outside in the grass. Some stand, some kneel. A red banner hangs behind them.
    Image
    Gathering of Thai Garment Workers

    A gathering of the Thai garment workers commemorating the anniversary of their freedom. Julie Su, an attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, represented workers in a groundbreaking civil case that resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement and sweeping labor legislation reforms.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • Newspaper front page with image of Thai women lined up, crouched on sidewalk. Beneath photo, article titled "Thai Workers Set Free in California."
    Text
    El Monte Garment Workers Released

    A story covering the release of the El Monte Thai garment workers from captivity was featured on the front page of the New York Times on August 4th, 1995.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • Thai magazine advertises two Thai restaurants in Chicago: New Siam and Rosded Restaurant.
    Text
    Advertisement for Thai Restaurants

    A handwritten advertisement for Rosded Restaurant and Siam and New Siam restaurants printed in Dhammophas Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3 (June–August 1976), published by Wat Dhammaram in Chicago, Illinois. Early Thai businesses were important financial supporters for Thai temples in the early years.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • Co-business owner Wanchai Suksod, smiling in black pants and white shirt, leans in doorway of his Thai restaurant Tawan. Open sign shown in window.
    Image
    Thai Restaurant Owner and Open Sign

    The owners of the newly opened Tawan Restaurant posing in front of their business. The names in Thai and English did not match, showing the ways early Thai restaurant owners had to appeal to both Thais and non-Thais in their business model.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • Co-business owner Rushanee Suksod, smiling proudly in a striped shirt, stands by front door of her Thai restaurant Tawan with the open sign displayed.
    Image
    Thai Restaurant With Owner

    The owners of the newly opened Tawan Restaurant posing in front of their business. The names in Thai and English did not match, showing the ways early Thai restaurant owners had to appeal to both Thais and non-Thais in their business model.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • A group of Thai people gather outside a wat. The group stands in a line formation and carries a sphere that is hung from a rod as a monk watches.
    Image
    Prayer Hall Consecration Ceremony

    Thais gathered at Wat Buddhawararam in Denver, Colorado, for the prayer hall consecration ceremony (งานผูกพัทธสีมา) in 1978. Senior monks flew from Thailand to preside over the ceremony due to a shortage of monks in Denver.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • Monument honoring King Bhumibol's birthplace. Bronze plaque has text related to King Bhumibol beneath decorated symbol.
    Image
    King Bhumibol’s Birthplace

    This plaque in Cambridge, Massachusetts, commemorates King Bhumibol’s birthplace and his connection to Harvard University, where his father Prince Mahidol studied public health and medicine. It has recently become a gathering place for the veneration and protest of the monarchy.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • Statue of mythical eagle-like creature, decorated in multi-colored tiles. Text in English and Thai relates to upcoming U.S. Census.
    Text
    The US Census Bureau Thai Outreach

    The US Census Bureau created outreach materials in Thai, with references to Thai culture. This poster depicts Karuda, a mythical creature from Hindu lore that many Thais would recognize.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • Black text on white background titled "Founding Members." Beneath heading, twenty four names are written in Thai.
    Text
    Thai Physician Association of America

    Names of the twenty-four founding members of the Thai Physician Association of America. The two party hosts, Drs. Yutthana and Thanasri Samroengrajaya, and Dr. Chalotorn Locharoenkul, writer of the initial recruitment letter, were all present at the inaugural meeting. (Source: TPAA (Thai Physician Association of America)

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 2
    View multimedia
  • Gold-colored painted words on red wooden signs read "Welcome to Buddhist Center of Dallas" in English and "Dallas Buddhist Center" in Thai.
    Image
    Buddhist Temple of Dallas Sign

    The Buddhist Temple of Dallas was founded in 1982. Like many Thai wats at the time, it was initially housed in a small home in a residential neighborhood. The next year, a new and larger location was consecrated on March 29, 1983.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 1
    View multimedia
  • Buddhist monks, dressed in orange robes, stand beside "Buddhist Temple of Dallas" sign. The monks stand in front of steps leading to Temple.
    Image
    Buddhist Temple of Dallas

    The Buddhist Temple of Dallas was founded in 1982. Like many Thai wats at the time, it was initially housed in a small home in a residential neighborhood. The next year, a new and larger location was consecrated on March 29, 1983.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 1
    View multimedia
  • Directory page with two photos. Above, a man in suit addresses rows of people in classroom. Below, a small portrait of the program's director.
    Text
    1967 Peace Corps Training

    A page from the 1967 Peace Corps Training Directory showing Thai language instructors and the Thai Minister of Education, M.L. Pin Malakul, addressing the latest cohort of volunteers during his visit to the training center at Northern Illinois University.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 1
    View multimedia
  • President Lyndon B. Johnson, seated outdoors at desk, signs Immigration Act. Uniformed men and men in suits crowd behind him to the right.
    Image
    President Lyndon B. Johnson Signs Immigration Act

    When President Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, he did not foresee how drastically the legislation would change Asian American communities and the American ethnic landscape.

    Featured in:
    Thai Americans, Module 1
    View multimedia
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The Asian American Studies Center acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and pay our respects to the honuukvetam (ancestors), ‘ahiihirom (elders), and ‘eyoohiinkem (relatives/relations) past, present, and emerging.

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