Lithograph
date: label: date made
content: 1970
label: date made
content: 1870
name: label: producer
content: Harte, Bret
notes: label: Description
content: One of a set of nine lithographed illustrated cards from the poem "The Heathen Chinee"
label: Description
content: Card on yellowed paper with illustration signed "Hull." No. 9 (of 9) in the upper left hand. Caricature of Truthful James, a fictional character, standing, a lit cigarette in his mouth, his right hand extended and his left in his pant pocket.
label: Description
content: In the 1870’s, white laborers considered the Chinese to be competition for jobs and sometimes responded with great hostility. Californians led the effort to prohibit further Chinese immigration, encouraging the passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1871, Brett Harte wrote a poem, “Plain Language from Truthful James,” that rebuked a white card shark cheating a Chinese man. Intended to be a commentary on the prejudice against the Chinese, the poem was often misinterpreted as a condemnation of the Chinese.
label: Description
content: Illustration by Joseph Hull for Bret Harte's poem entitled "The Heathen Chinee: [Plain Language from Truthful James]." Printed by Western News Co. Poem first appeared in "Overland Monthly."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: depicted
content: Chinese Americans
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Nancy E. Davis
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0281.09
label: accession number
content: 2015.0281
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0281.09
objectType: label: Object Name
content: poem on card
label: Object Name
content: lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 1/4 in x 5 1/2 in; 18.415 cm x 13.97 cm