JANM TO LAUNCH IMAGES OF EATON COLLECTION ON FLICKR

The Japanese American National Museum will debut new pre-conservation photography of the Allen Hendershott Eaton Collection, which it acquired last year, on Flickr on Friday, April 15, 2016. The date coincides with the one-year anniversary of the cancellation of a public auction of the collection.

Beginning April 15, the public is invited to visit flickr.com/jamuseum and view images of about 150 artifacts from the collection. Those with information about the origins of specific items are encouraged to share details as comments on Flickr.

The collection also includes about 300 photographs taken in America’s concentration camps, mostly by the War Relocation Authority (WRA). These images will be added to Flickr in the coming month. Many have been seen before and most are in the public domain.

“The Japanese American community and its friends saved these items from a fate that would have broken them up and failed to honor their history and respect their value. The Japanese American National Museum is ever grateful to those who helped and we are now very pleased to share photographs of these important artifacts with the public,” said Norman Y. Mineta, Chairman of the JANM Board of Trustees.

Allen Hendershott Eaton collected the art and artifacts while Japanese Americans were incarcerated in camps during World War II. In 1952, his book Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: the Art of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps was published, with Eaton’s intent being to call attention to the injustice of the camps and the resilience of the Japanese Americans even in the face of their circumstances. He had also planned to create an exhibition of the artifacts but that never came to fruition.

The majority of the artifacts, other than the WRA photographs, are in need of significant conservation work and JANM is preparing them for that process. Following that work, the museum hopes to make some of the art and artifacts available for public viewing.

NOW ON VIEW AT JANM:

Two Views: Photographs by Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank
Through April 24, 2016
Two Views: Photographs by Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank examines the forced incarceration of citizens of Japanese descent who were living in the western coastal regions. Ansel Adams’s photographs reveal the harsh daily life and resilience of the 10,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, while Leonard Frank’s images capture the movement of Japanese Canadians through British Columbia’s bureaucratic systems. Two Views is a traveling exhibition organized by the Nikkei National Museum.

Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920–1940
Through June 26, 2016
Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920–1940 is an in-depth examination of the contributions of Japanese Americans to photography, particularly modernist photography, much of which was lost as a result of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. The exhibition, curated by photography historian and educator Dennis Reed, presents 103 surviving works from that period alongside artifacts and ephemera that help bring the era to life.

Common Ground: The Heart of Community
Ongoing
Incorporating hundreds of objects, documents, and photographs collected by JANM, this exhibition chronicles 130 years of Japanese American history, from the early days of the Issei pioneers through the World War II incarceration to the present.

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, the Japanese American National Museum promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories and strives to provide a voice for Japanese Americans as well as a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public, JANM has presented over 70 exhibitions onsite and traveled 17 of its exhibitions to locations around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America.

JANM is located at 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. General admission is $9 adults, $5 students and seniors, free for members and children under age five. Admission is free to everyone on Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and every third Thursday of the month from noon to 8 p.m. General admission prices and free admission times may not apply to specially ticketed exhibitions. Closed Monday, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. For more information visit janm.org or call 213.625.0414.