Walter and Emma Fong collection, 1889-2001, bulk 1889-1928

View only results with digital items
Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Creators:
Fong, Walter Ngon. and Fong, Emma Howse.
Extent:
2.25 Linear Feet
Language:
Undetermined .
Preferred citation:

[identification of item] Walter and Emma Fong Collection (SC0994). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Background

Scope and content:

Photographs, manuscript materials, and printed materials related to the lives of Walter Ngon Fong (1866-1906, widely reported to be the first Chinese student to graduate from Stanford [class of 1896, A.B.]) and his wife, Emma Howse Fong. Photographs include images of Walter Fong, his wife Emma, and their children; of Li Shing Scientific College in Hong Kong; and a series on agricultural and domestic life in Chinese villages. Manuscript materials include Walter Fong's essay "Some Phases of Village Life in Southern China"; Emma Fong's essay on the life of Walter N. Fong and a photocopy of "My Oriental Husbands"; Walter Fong's death records; and assorted legal and financial records.

Biographical / historical:

Walter Ngon Fong (1866-1906) and Emma Fong Kuno nee Howse (1873-1948) met at Stanford University and were married in Colorado, as interracial marriage was prohibited under California Law. Walter Fong was the first Chinese American to graduate from Stanford, acquiring his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology in 1896 with an interest in law.

He later became an important figure in the Chinese community in San Francisco as a lawyer, a minister at the Oakland Chinese Methodist Episcopal Mission, and as a Chinese teacher at the University of California (UC) Berkeley. He taught at UC Berkeley, while also attending as a graduate student. In addition to many other social reform activities, including helping establish an American branch of the Hsing Chung Hui Society, Walter Fong also became a special agent for the United States Census Bureau, supervising the census enumerators during a bubonic plague outbreak in San Francisco. He died of tuberculosis after taking a position as the president of Li Sing Scientific College in Hong Kong.

After his death, his wife, Emma, returned to San Francisco with their two children, Arthur and Chester Fong. She later married Walter's former colleague, linguistic instructor at UC Berkeley, Japanese professor Yoshi Saburo Kuno. Professionally, Emma was a writing for local magazines and newspapers. In 1922, she published a serialized story about her marriages to Fong and Kuno in the San Francisco Bulletin.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Marc Selvaggio, 2010; Gift, 2018.
Physical location:
Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 48 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/spc.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html.

Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

Preferred citation:

[identification of item] Walter and Emma Fong Collection (SC0994). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Location of this collection:
Stanford University Archives, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6064, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022
specialcollections@stanford.edu
Website