Tag Archives: Ming Quong Home

Update on Donaldina Cameron and the Ming Quong Home

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Elena B. Wong Viscovich, Ed.D, sent me a clarification and update on the original 3/21/2016 blog entry on Donaldina Cameron and the children at the Ming Quong Home.

Ming Quong Home was established 1925 for girls that were orphans, half-orphans, children of divorce, unwanted by a step-parent, or because of mental, physical health of parents, and of refugee status, etc. The children at Ming Quong Home were not prostitutes, orphans of prostitutes, nor illegitimate children. 

Photo from The Story of the Ming Quong Home website

For a more complete story about the Ming Quong Home, please go to “The Story of the Ming Quong Homes” and its citations by Elena B. Wong Viscovich, Ed.D, a Ming Quong alumna. While researching the Ming Quong Home, Dr. Wong Viscovich found the original log listing the names of the girls at Ming Quong. She then helped redesign the contents of the Ming Quong Museum Room at the Pacific Clinics property in 2021. The log listed the reasons for placement which is mentioned above.

Donaldina Cameron – “The Angel of Chinatown” in San Francisco

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Photo of Donaldina Cameron
Donaldina Cameron

[Correspondence from Donaldina Cameron is included in many Chinese Exclusion files but she is not the subject of a file.]
Donaldina Cameron (1869-1968), the superintendent of the Presbyterian Mission Home in San Francisco from 1899-1934, rescued more than 3,000 Chinese woman and girls from the sex slave trade. Because the Chinese Exclusion Act made it very difficult for Chinese women to enter the United States, young woman were recruited and brought here thinking they would be working as domestic servants. Instead they were sold as prostitutes by the Chinese Tongs. The girls were held captive and Cameron would find them, smuggle them out and give them a safe place to live at the Mission Home.
At the Home the girls had lessons on Christian religion, English language and American housekeeping skills but they were taught very little about their Chinese culture.
To raise money for the Home, Cameron published articles in various religious and women’s journals and a pamphlet, “The Yellow Slave Traffic.” Donaldina founded the Chung Mei Home for orphans boys and Ming Quong Home for orphan girls.
Donaldina retired in 1934 and in 1942 the Presbyterian Home became known as the Donaldina Cameron House. It is located at 920 Sacramento Street in San Francisco, CA.
Miss Cameron died at age 98 on 4 January 1968. 1
1. “Donaldina Cameron,” Wikipedia, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaldina_Cameron : accessed 16 March 2016.)
More information can be found at:
http://cameronhouse.org/, http://www.findagrave.com/, https://stargazermercantile.com/woman-mission-donaldina-cameron/, http://noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf044.asp