Snapshots of the Past

[Rag Pickers Alley, San Francisco, California] – Antique Print

[Rag Pickers Alley, San Francisco, California], c1921. — historic photograph
[Rag Pickers Alley, San Francisco, California], c1921.. Historic photograph from the San Francisco collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This historic photograph of [Rag Pickers Alley, San Francisco, California] brings a moment of history to your wall. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. It makes a striking addition to a living room, study or office, and a thoughtful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

[Rag Pickers Alley, San Francisco, California]

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Rag Pickers Alley, as the title names it, was a lane in San Francisco where collecting and sorting cast-off cloth and salvage provided a living. The subject headings single out Chinese American workers and the presence of smoking, details that place the scene within the city's Chinese community around 1921. Hand sorting of rags and junk was low-paid work that was often open to immigrants shut out of other trades, a reality shaped by the Chinese Exclusion Act, which had restricted Chinese immigration since 1882. The picture is worth studying for how it records daily labor in a neighborhood that outsiders often glimpsed only from the street.

Created / publishedc1921.
Medium1 photographic print.
GenrePhotographic prints 1920-1930.
SubjectsChinese Americans--Employment--California--San Francisco--1920-1930. Ragpicking--California--San Francisco--1920-1930. Smoking--1920-1930.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,277 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-181753

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