Thousands of miners and opportunists swarmed into the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, following the 1874 discovery of gold in the nearby Black Hills. Deadwood was soon one of the West’s most notorious frontier towns, referred to as “Sin City” due to its reputation for gambling and vice.

Among the new arrivals were numerous Chinese immigrants, equally determined to seek their fortune in the West. Many worked as laborers for larger outfits, while others became entrepreneurs, establishing laundries, restaurants, and other small businesses, eventually establishing in Deadwood the largest Chinatown east of San Francisco.

The Newcomers portrays a small group of Chinese immigrants who have just arrived on the main street of Deadwood. Startled by the commotion of this bustling town and the dissolute behavior of its residents, the painting suggests the strange and sometimes baffling encounters between peoples of varied and often quite different cultures in the frontier West. - MS