Within the exhibition, rich in media and artifacts, will be little-known stories relating to China, such as the voyage of the Empress of China, which set sail from New York in the late eighteenth century; how young Chinese boys were sent by their government to study at elite New England schools during the nineteenth century, one of whom went on to graduate from Yale University; the unprecedented immigration legislation known as the Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred most Chinese from entering the United States; the nineteenth-century newspaper, called Chin

When war broke out in 1939, New York was a cosmopolitan, heavily immigrant city, whose people had real stakes in the global conflict and strongly held opinions about whether or not to intervene. The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought the U.S. into the war, and New York became the principal port of embarkation for the warfront. The presence of troops, the inflow of refugees, the wartime industries, the dispatch of fleets, and the dissemination of news and propaganda from media outlets, changed New York, giving its customary commercial and creative bustle a military flavor.

When war broke out in 1939, New York was a cosmopolitan, heavily immigrant city, whose people had real stakes in the global conflict and strongly held opinions about whether or not to intervene. The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought the U.S. into the war, and New York became the principal port of embarkation for the warfront.