Application and Receipt for Certificate of Identity for Tyrus Wong
This application and receipt for certificate of identity comes from the Immigration Arrival Investigation Case File for Tai Yow Look. Tyrus Wong, the noted artist and animator, presented this "paper identity" to immigration officials when he originally arrived in the United States at the age of nine. Wong was the lead artist for Disney's Bambi and later worked as a production illustrator at Warner Bros. Studios for 26 years.
Application and Receipt for Certificate of Identify for Tyrus Wong from Look, Tai Yow - Case Number: 19817/3-19. National Archives Identifier: 28846155.
Arrival investigation case files document immigration agency investigations of persons applying to land and reside in the United States. While the investigation proceeded, immigrants applying to enter the United States at San Francisco were detained in federal custody—initially on board their ships, during turn-of-century years at a substandard "detention shed," and during the years 1910–40 at the famous Angel Island Immigration Station. The case files contain documents created by agency officials during the investigations such as memoranda, interrogation testimony, and case cross-reference sheets, as well as documents which became part of the case file when submitted as evidence by the immigrants. The latter may include family photographs and marriage certificates. In some instances, there are "village maps" of ancestral home villages. There are also occasional instances in which "confession documents" generated during the early 1960s "correct the record" regarding immigrants who outwitted immigration officials by obtaining residential status under the "assumed identity" of a "paper son," etc.
Many examples of these files are available online in the National Archives Catalog:
- Fenthol, Fritz - Case Number: 40085/005-21 - Ship of Arrival: Asama Maru, 06/22/1940. German-born Fritz Fenthol was counsel of the Krupp Munitions Company and reportedly associated with high ranking officials in the Nazi Party. He was suspected by the U.S. Department of Justice of being a German agent engaging in espionage during his 1940 (and) later visits to the United States. He was later implicated in activities related to being a German agent in Bolivia in 1943.
- Han, Ki To - Case Number: 31464/008-02 - Ship of Arrival: Shinyo Maru, 03/31/1932. Korean student K. D. Han came to the United States to attend medical school.
- Yatabe, Tsuchiyo - Case Number: 12741/021-20 - Ship of Arrival: MANCHURIA, 06/16/1913. Tsuchiyo Yatabe arrived in the United States as a Japanese "picture bride."
- Pei, leoh Ming - Case Number: 35527/015-16 - Ship of Arrival: President Coolidge, 08/28/1935. Renowned architect I. M. Pei first entered the United States at the age of 18 in 1935.
Note: Other NARA locations title this series “Chinese Exclusion Case Files”; however, our office chose the more broad title due to the significant volume of immigrants from other countries represented in the files.
You can explore more records held in the National Archives at San Francisco by searching our online Catalog or by visiting our research room in person. We encourage researchers to contact us to learn more about our holdings or to schedule an appointment.