Willamette Heritage Center exhibit reveals erased Chinese-American history in Salem

In a glass case at the Willamette Heritage Center sit jars of preserved kumquat, unopened for almost a century.

It’s part of an exhibit that scoured newspaper archives, historical records and family storage to tell the story of Salem’s Chinese-American community of the era – a population whose stories were ultimately erased by the city’s white-centric historical record.

“Finding Salem’s Chinatown(s),” an exhibit which runs through May 6, focuses on the people who lived in…