Mandarin Restaurant Ashtray
Mandarin Restaurant Ashtray
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- Description
- Original ashtray from The Mandarin, in San Francisco, California, a restaurant owned by Cecilia Chiang.
- When one thinks of smoking and Chinese American history, one may think of the early Chinese laborers and opium dens in the early Chinatowns of California. Although many Americans, particularly the anti-Chinese movement, portrayed these images to show the deviance of Chinese immigrants, they had grown accustomed to another form of smoking in its heyday in the first half of the 20th century: the cigarette.
- An ashtray is a tray where cigarette or cigar ashes can be discarded. Cecilia Chiang made an ashtray designed specifically for her restaurant, with the famous logo of Madame Chiang. The ashtray refers to a time period in American restaurants when smoking in public places was allowed and even embraced as an important pastime of American culture. In fact, when Cecilia Chiang opened her first restaurant during the 1960s, over half of adult Americans were regular smokers. But the public health movement against smoking led to the public ban on smoking and ultimately, a decline in smoking in general. In 1998, California laws declared smoking illegal in bars, restaurants, and public places.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- Ashtray
- ashtray
- Measurements
- overall: 15.5 cm x 15.5 cm x 2.5 cm; 6 3/32 in x 6 3/32 in x 31/32 in
- ID Number
- 2011.0115.03
- catalog number
- 2011.0115.03
- accession number
- 2011.0115
- Credit Line
- Cecilia Chiang
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Asian Pacific American Business
- Food
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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