Description
This collection contains materials owned by Dr. Tom Wing between the 1920s and 1980s, which were exhibited by the Chinese
Historical Society of Southern California. It contains miscellaneous vintage tape recorders, acupuncture devices, a model
car, a printed exhibit tour guide, posters on foam board, and cosmetology instruments. The collection may have previously
been known as the Disaster Red Cross Radio Collection.
Background
Dr. Thomas W. Wing (1915-2010) was born in Lodi, California, on July 22, 1915, and grew up in the Central Valley. He graduated
from Los Angeles College of Chiropractic with a focus on Chinese herbal medicine and diabetes. He opened practices in Los
Angeles, Pomona, and San Bernardino. Wing designed and manufactured the first profitable and affordable personal radio paging
system. He also created acupuncture and microcurrent muscle therapy machines with the Accu-O-Matic in 1976, and the My-O-Matic
in 1980. In addition, Wing was a contributor to the magazine, Chiropractic Economics. In 1950, Wing and his wife, Kay Wing,
became the first Chinese-American family to settle in Claremont, California, where they faced racial discrimination in the
predominately white town. The Wings were initially barred from participating in social service clubs due to racial discrimination
until the Pomona Uptown Lions chapter was chartered specifically to admit them in 1950. Tom Wing and the Lions Club organized
popular weekend drag races at the Pomona Fairgrounds. Wing donated some pieces of his inventions to The Pomona Ebell Museum
of History, including his handmade ham radio station, and the Ontario Museum of History and Art, which has one of his early
electronic therapy devices on display.