CELEBRATE ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE!

Learn more local history at thehistorycenter.net/aapi-heritage-month

Tompkins County's first recorded residents of Asian descent date to the mid 1800's. Immigrants from the Pacific Islands came in more limited numbers in the twentieth century.

The first Asian business on record, a Chinese laundry opened by John and Mahong Lee as early as 1885, was located at 105 N. Aurora St in downtown Ithaca. Many early Asian residents came to the area to study at Cornell University, or to support family members and children studying at the college. Cornell’s first Japanese student, Kanaye Nagasawa (birth name Hikosuke Isonaga) was one of the first eight recorded Japanese individuals to come to the United States.

President George H. W. Bush designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month on May 7, 1990, following the passage of Pub. L. 101-283 by Congress. This law also recognized the significance of May 7th and May 10th in the history of Asian and Pacific Islanders.

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