438 OHQ vol. 119, no. 3 internment, and abundant illustrations, would be perfect for art history seminars, courses on immigrant cultural history, or courses exploring the broader effects of mass incarceration. The only drawback here is that Johns places Fujii solely in an American context. This reduces Fujii’s ongoing connection to the material culture of Japan, as shown in his paintings depicting mochi pounding or geta sandal, to an element of his “cultural identification” with Japan (p. 77). Issei were not culturally isolated from Japan. Their ongoing embrace of Japanese art, films, and literature was in fact central to many prewar social institutions. Finally, this book is evidence of important work being done by Densho, the Japanese Diaspora Initiative, and other institutions preserving the material culture of Japanese American history. The Wing Luke Museum’s conservation of a Fujii painting helped connect Johns and Kita, leading to this book and a touring exhibition of Fujii’s art. It is clear that these institutions are providing an invaluable platform for increasing scholarly collaboration and public understanding. Robert Hegwood Spokane, Washington SHOW TOWN: THEATER AND CULTURE IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, 1890–1920 by Holly George University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2016. Illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 280 pages. $29.95, cloth. Set against the backdrop of Spokane, Washington , between 1890 and 1920, Show Town elucidates the relationships between railroads , boosterism, newspapers, and shifting American mores. Holly George focuses her lens on the theatrical stage to “understand social relations and cultural norms, outside connections, and urban identities,” during a time when Spokane experienced a population explosion and its leaders negotiated the city’s identity (p. 6). Between 1880 and 1910, civic leaders and boosters sought to craft and sell an image of the city aimed at attracting the “correct” citizenry — an image that was distinctly white, privileged, and “respectable” (p. 20). The boosters’ mental construction of their boomtown, however, did not match Spokane’s reality of a largely itinerant working-class population. By combing through newspapers, archival records, census reports, and more, George sketches a narrative of these social and economic forces as they played out on Spokane’s stages. Show Town begins with the Auditorium Theater’s opening in 1890, which was Spokane ’s crowning theater achievement of civic promotion and a symbol to the upper class that they had achieved their vision of Victorian refinement and respectability. Civic leaders boosted the Auditorium as proof of Spokane’s urbanity, specifically eschewing the image of the raw wild west, and embracing, indeed copying, the sophistication of eastern metropolises such as Chicago and New York. While the Auditorium was to be the pinnacle of the respectable stage, in reality, the public had a “proclivity for the light and the naughty” (p. 17). Therefore, within a decade of its opening, the legitimate theater presented at the Auditorium was eclipsed by variety theater. Next, George discusses variety theaters, the salacious saloon-theater combo that became a battleground for Spokane’s soul. Variety theaters were spaces that mixed mainly male audiences, female entertainers and barmaids, and alcohol — a sometimes combustible combination . In a geographically isolated region of the Pacific Northwest, there was certainly an imbalance of the sexes, with more men than women. The city’s elite strived to craft Spokane into a respectable, middle-class “show town,” with the newspapers acting as the “guardian of public morals” (p. 55). But a key tension in this quickly growing city was the choice “between revenues and respectability” (p. 55). While leaders and boosters wanted to attract proper Victorian families, the birth of Spokane was predicated on the development of the railroads and the male-dominated industries of mining, logging, and farming. These resource-extraction industries depended on OHS Treasures Oregon Historical Society 1200 SW Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205 503.222.1741 • www.ohs.org Rediscoveries in the Museum Collection THIS GIRL’S PINAFORE (an apronlike dress), according to donation records, was made by Rachel Owens Davidson during her wagon journey to Oregon in 1846. The dress is made of blue-green colored cotton with a stylized floral vine print in white, yellow, green, and pink. The dress shows evidence of skilled hand-stitching and much less...
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Oct 2, 2023
Peter Michael Scott 
Open Access
