Gloria Wong Chung Papers and Photographs
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Abstract
Dr. Gloria Wong Chung (1925-2007) was a leader in the struggle for healthcare and empowerment in New York City's Chinatown and one of the first female Asian/Pacific American psychiatrists. In 1965, along with eight others, she helped found the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), which is currently one of the largest providers of social services to Asian/Pacific Americans in the United States. The collection contains materials in various formats documenting Dr. Gloria Wong Chung's personal life and her work as one of the first female Asian/Pacific American psychiatrists. Formats represented in the collection include correspondence, brochures, newspaper clippings, notebooks, photographs, diplomas, awards, and certificates.
Historical/Biographical Note
Dr. Gloria Wong Chung (1925-2007), a leader in the struggle for healthcare and empowerment in New York City's Chinatown and one of the first female Asian/Pacific American psychiatrists, was born in Taishan, Guangdong Province. In 1929, Dr. Chung and her family came to the United States, settling in Albert Lea, Minnesota, where they were the only Chinese family.
Dr. Chung graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1948, and for the next fifty-eight years worked as a psychiatrist, specializing in pediatric and adolescent psychiatry. In 1962, she was appointed Clinical Director of Health Services in Bedford Stuyvesant under the auspices of the Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers. Dr. Chung served in this position until 1967, when she took a job with the Children's Psychiatric Center in Eatontown, New Jersey. In 1972, she joined the staff of the Community Mental Health Center of the Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey, where she served as the Director of Outpatient Services from 1974 to 1989. Over the course of her career, Dr. Chung introduced a number of innovations in psychiatric care, such as using anger management training to alleviate domestic violence and providing mental health services to municipal jail inmates, pregnant adolescents, and women suffering from clinical depression.
In 1965, along with eight others, she helped found the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC). Currently one of the largest providers of social services to Asian/Pacific Americans in the United States, CPC began as a small volunteer-run family assistance program.
Dr. Gloria Wong Chung died in 2007.
Arrangement
Photographs are arranged alphabetically by folder title. Papers have not been arranged by an archivist and are organized in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Content Note
The collection contains materials in various formats documenting Dr. Gloria Wong Chung's struggles to promote healthcare and empowerment in New York City's Chinatown and her work as one of the first female Asian/Pacific American psychiatrists. Formats represented in the collection include personal correspondence, brochures, newspaper clippings, notebooks, photographs, diplomas, awards, and certificates.
The collection includes two small notebooks containing handwritten notes pertaining to psychiatry and brochures and programs from award ceremonies, mostly from the Chinatown Planning Council and Children's Psychiatric Center, but also from the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce. There are also two folders of newspaper clippings, one chronicling Chinatown events from the late 1960s and late 1970s and the other featuring articles about Dr. Chung. Diplomas and certificates document information about her professional credentials and awards document honors she received for her work for the CPC. Also present are observation tapes of a Chinese pilot family on 1/4 inch reel to reel audio tapes, sent to Dr. Chung by child and development psychologist Margaret Bullowa, who recorded them as part of her research.
Of a more personal nature are the correspondence and photographs in the collection. The letters date from the 1950s and document exchanges between Dr. Chung and her brother Edward Chung, and also include drawings of the Chungs' home in Minnesota during the 1930s and 1940s. Subjects of the photographs include Dr. Chung at age 16, wedding photos, and Dr. Chung later in her life. Many photographs are of the various groups and societies which she was a part of during her college years, including her sorority (circa 1947-48), the Chinese Student Club (circa 1947-48), and Sigma Sigma Phi (circa 1947-48). There are also two large panorama photos from Alpha Lambda banquets in 1947 and 1949. Many of the photographs are annotated on the back, and the annotations contain descriptive information about events and individuals in the images. Color scans of Dr. Chung's scrapbook from the University of Minnesota (circa 1947-48) are also included, as is a hand-made poster for a radio program which Dr. Chung appeared on as a guest.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Gloria Wong Chung were transferred to New York University in 2010 in Jock Chung. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; Gloria Wong Chung Papers and Photographs; TAM 559; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Jock Chung, Executor to the Estate of Gloria Wong Chung, in 2010. The accession numbers associated with this gift 2010.086 and 2011.047.
Other Finding Aids
The original Asian/Pacific/American Institute survey of the collection can be accessed here: http://dlibdev.nyu.edu/tamimentapa/?q=node/182
About this Guide
Processing Information
Photographs have been rehoused in archival folders.
Photographs were separated from this collection during accessioning and were established as a separate collection, the Gloria Wong Chung Photographs (PHOTOS 279). In 2013, the photograph collection was reincorporated into the Gloria Wong Chung Papers and Photographs (TAM 559).