Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Alternative Forms of Material Available
Processing History
Historical Background
Collection Scope and Content Summary
Collection Arrangement
Processing Note
Bibliography
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine
Libraries
Title: Guire Cleary and Jade B. Ngoc Le collection of Hmong and Iu Mien refugee
artifacts
Identifier/Call Number: MS.SEA.008
Physical Description:
15.4 Linear Feet
(19 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1978-1982
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.
Language of Material:
English .
Access
The collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the University of California. For permissions to reproduce or
to publish, please contact the Southeast Asian Archive Librarian.
Preferred Citation
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.
Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information
about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder
descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Acquisition Information
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.
Processing History
Processed by Julia Stringfellow, 2005. Processing was supported by a National Endowment for
the Humanities (NEH) grant.
Historical Background
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.
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.
Collection Arrangement
This collection is arranged according to the item numbers assigned by Guire Cleary.
Processing Note
Description of the items is from Cleary's inventory that was received with the
collection.
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).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Hmong (Asian people) -- Social life and customs.
Hmong (Asian people) -- California -- San Francisco --
Archives.
Refugees -- California -- San Francisco -- Archives.
Emigration and immigration -- Southeast Asia -- History --
Sources.
Emigration and immigration -- California -- San Francisco -- History --
Sources.
Yao Americans (Southeast Asian people) -- California -- San Francisco
-- Archives.
Refugees -- Southeast Asia -- Archives.
Yao Americans (Southeast Asian people) -- Social life and
customs.
Artifacts -- Southeast Asia -- 20th century.