Oregon Historical Quarterly has awarded the Joel Palmer Award to the authors of “Searching for Salem’s Early Chinese Community,” which recognizes the best article published in the journal during the previous year. 

In this research article, Kimberli Fitzgerald, Salem’s Historic Preservation Officer, Kirsten Straus, her assistant, and Kylie Pine of the Willamette Heritage Center, document their three-year investigation to answer the question, “Did Salem, Oregon, have a Chinatown during the late 1800s?” 

“[The authors' article] skillfully interweaves various storylines into one captivating narrative,” wrote a member of the Oregon Historical Quarterly Editorial Advisory Board, in casting their vote for the award. “Moreover, the inclusion of telling photographs and maps aids the reader in imagining the lived experiences of Salem’s once erased Chinese community. The authors connected the past to the present in compelling ways and also brought together local, state, national, and global history. That is not a small feat.”

Working with a local advisory committee, the authors learned that Salem had a thriving Chinatown for many years that included community leader George Lai Sun and several prominent families.  An archaeological team also uncovered a funerary table in Salem’s Pioneer Cemetery, one of very few physical remnants of the late-19th and early-20th century community.