The acrid smoke hung thick in dimly lit basements across America’s cities, where customers from society’s highest and lowest rungs sought refuge in clouds of vaporized opium. These haunting photographs capture a shadowy chapter of American history when underground dens became gathering places for those chasing escape through the narcotic haze, ultimately forcing the nation to confront its first major drug crisis.
Chinese immigrants brought opium culture to American shores during the mid-1800s, with the earliest establishments appearing in San Francisco’s Chinatown between the 1840s and 1850s.
