Anastacio Atig Omandam's steamer trunk
notes: label: Description
content: This wardrobe steamer trunk is one of twenty-six discovered in the basement of the Daguhoy Lodge No. 528 in Stockton, California. The trunk, previously owned by Anastacio Atig Omandam, tells a story of Filipino labor migration in the twentieth century.
label: Description
content: Steamer trunks, often referred to as "packers" in old catalogs but widely known as "steamer" trunks due to their common use in the cabins of steamships, are noted for their flat or slightly curved tops. This trunk is covered in canvas, adhering to the common materials and dimensions of luggage from the period spanning 1880 to 1920, conforming to steamship regulations.
label: Description
content: The trunk itself, a wardrobe type that must be stood on end to be opened, features drawers on one side and hangers for clothes on the other. Typical of the better lines of wardrobe trunks, it likely included enhancements such as buckles or tie-downs for shoes, removable suitcases or briefcases, privacy curtains, mirrors, make-up boxes, and other conveniences for extended travel by ship or train. These trunks are generally large and heavy, tailored for long voyages and ample storage.
label: Description
content: The Daguhoy Lodge was owned and operated by the Legionarios del Trabajo (LDT), a Filipino American fraternal organization founded in San Francisco in 1924 to which Omandam was a member. Modeled after Masonic lodges, the LDT established chapters across the globe—including in the Philippines, Hawai‘i, and North America—mirroring the paths of the Filipino diaspora. The Daguhoy Lodge was named after Francisco Dagohoy (1724–1800), a Filipino revolutionary who led the longest anti-colonial uprising in Philippine history against Spanish rule.
label: Description
content: The twenty-six trunks, discovered in 2005 by Grandmaster Antonio Somera, contain personal belongings of a wave of Filipino migrants in the 1920s who emigrated from various provinces in the Philippines to work on Hawaiian sugar plantations as contract laborers. Many eventually relocated to California’s Central Valley, where they found jobs in agriculture and helped establish Stockton’s Little Manila neighborhood—one of the largest Filipino communities in the United States by the late 1910s.
label: Description
content: Anastacio Atig Omandam was born April 19, 1890 in Negros Oriental, a province that sent thousands of workers abroad in the early 1900s. He was one of six brothers recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA) and, in 1916, boarded the steamship Nippon Maru to Honolulu. There, he worked for the Waialua Agricultural Company on the island of O‘ahu.
label: Description
content: HSPA records show that Omandam left before completing his three-year contract, likely seeking better opportunities on the west coast of the United States. By 1917, he had arrived in California. U.S. Census records from 1920 and 1940 list him as a farmworker in the San Joaquin Valley, living in Stockton and working approximately 50 hours a week. He was also an active member of the LDT. Omandam passed away in 1966.
label: Description
content: In 2022, Little Manila Rising—a community-based nonprofit in Stockton—donated Omandam’s trunk to NMAH, including handwritten letters, monogrammed three-piece suits, and personal items that illuminate Omandam’s life and legacy. Little Manila Rising donated the remaining twenty-five trunks to the San Joaquin County Historical Museum in Lodi, California.
label: Description
content: The archival materials from the steamer trunks are held in the Archives Center at NMAH. See <a href="https://sova.si.edu/record/nmah.ac.1515">this link</a> to access the finding aid for the Filipino Agricultural Workers Collection. Additional archival materials may be found at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum.
label: Description
content: To learn more about the history of Stockton’s Little Manila, refer to Little Manila Is in the Heart: The Making of the Filipina/o American Community in Stockton, California (2013) by Dr. Dawn Bohulano Mabalon.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: associated place
content: United States: California, Stockton
topic: label: associated community
content: Asian Pacific Americans
label: associated community
content: Asian Americans
label: associated community
content: Asian
label: associated community
content: Filipino Americans
label: associated community
content: Filipinos
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0058.01.01
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0058.01.01
label: accession number
content: 2022.0058
objectType: label: Object Name
content: trunk, steamer
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 42 in x 24 in x 23 in; 106.68 cm x 60.96 cm x 58.42 cm