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Guide to the Guire Cleary and Jade B. Ngoc Le Collection of Hmong and Iu Mien Refugee Artifacts
MS-SEA008
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Title: Guire Cleary and Jade B. Ngoc Le collection of Hmong and Iu Mien refugee artifacts
Date: 1978-1982
Collection Number: MS-SEA008
Creator:
Cleary, Guire
Le, Jade B. Ngoc
Extent:
15.4 linear feet
(19 boxes)
Languages: The collection is in English and Hmong.
Repository:
University of California, Irvine. Library. Special Collections and Archives.
Irvine, California 92623-9557
Abstract: This collection is comprised of 55 artifacts collected by Guire Cleary and Jade B. Ngoc Le from Southeast Asian refugees.
Cleary is a Franciscan friar of the Episcopal Church who served as assistant director of the Tolstoy Foundation in San Francisco,
California. Le is the former director of the United States Catholic Conference transit center in San Francisco. The artifacts
in this collection are mostly Hmong or Iu Mien in origin and were left behind by refugees at the Travelodge Transit Center
in San Francisco. During 1979-1983, San Francisco, California was the entry point for over 50,000 refugees each year who arrived
in the United States from refugee camps in Asia. Other artifacts were collected in the San Francisco area. The artifacts include
clothing, cooking materials, English language exercise books, and identification cards.
Selected digitized images from this collection.
Important Information for Researchers
The collection is open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the
Southeast Asian Archive Librarian.
Guire Cleary and Jade B. Ngoc Le Collection of Hmong and Iu Mien Refugee Artifacts. MS-SEA008. Special Collections and Archives,
The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Gift of Guire Cleary and Jade B. Ngoc Le, 1997.
Alternative Forms of Material Available
A selection of eight images from this collection has been digitized and is available in the Online Archive of California.
Processed by Julia Stringfellow, 2005. Processing was supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant.
In August 1979 Guire John Cleary was hired by the Church World Service, a voluntary agency in San Francisco, California that
assisted in the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees. Cleary helped to provide transportation for the refugees, who generally
spent the night in San Francisco before leaving on flights the next morning to their ultimate destination throughout the United
States. After Cleary was injured in an automobile accident, he left Church World Service and was appointed assistant director
of the Tolstoy Foundation in December 1979, another voluntary agency that assisted in refugee resettlement, predominately
for refugees from Laos. Cleary remained with the Tolstoy Foundation until 1983. After working for a number of years as a business
litigation paralegal in Los Angeles, Cleary returned to the religious community. Previous to 1979, Cleary was part of the
Society of St. Francis, a religious order in the Episcopal Church. In 2000, as Brother Guire Cleary, SSF, he was appointed
curator of the historic Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores), the first Episcopalian and Franciscan brother to
serve at the mission since 1845. As a scholar and writer, Cleary's work focused on the history of the Franciscan Order and
the California missions, with a particular emphasis on the Ohlone and other Native Americans who originally settled in the
San Francisco area. Cleary also served on the board of directors of the San Francisco History Association and the California
Mission Studies Association. In January 2004, Cleary was transferred to New Zealand. Cleary is the recipient of several awards
including Friend of the Ohlone People, Honorary U.S. Park Ranger, and the Oscar Lewis Award for historical writing.
Jade B. Ngoc Le is the former director of the United States Catholic Conference transit center in San Francisco. She lives
in La Honda, California.
For further information on Guire Cleary, see the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society's website (http://www.sfhistoryencyclopedia.com/profiles/clearyGuire.html)
and the San Francisco History Association Award Honorees website (http://www.sanfranciscohistory.org/awardsarchive.htm#lewis).
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection is comprised of 55 artifacts collected by Guire Cleary and Jade B. Ngoc Le from Southeast Asian refugees.
The artifacts in this collection are mostly Hmong or Iu Mien in origin and were left behind by refugees at the Travelodge
Transit Center in San Francisco. During 1979-1983, San Francisco, California was the entry point for over 50,000 refugees
each year who arrived in the United States from refugee camps in Asia. Other artifacts were collected in the San Francisco
area. The artifacts include clothing, cooking materials, English language exercise books, and identification cards.
This collection is arranged according to the item numbers assigned by Guire Cleary.
Description of the items is from Cleary's inventory that was received with the collection. There is no item 5 in the collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Refugees -- Southeast Asia -- Archives.
Refugees -- California -- San Francisco -- Archives.
Hmong (Asian people) -- California -- San Francisco -- Archives.
Hmong (Asian people) -- Social life and customs.
Yao Americans (Southeast Asian people) -- California -- San Francisco -- Archives.
Yao Americans (Southeast Asian people) -- Social life and customs.
Emigration and immigration -- Southeast Asia -- History -- Sources.
Emigration and immigration -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- Sources.
Genres and Formats of Materials
Artifacts -- Southeast Asia -- 20th century.
Lê, Jade B. Ngoc.
Southeast Asian Archive.