• Title
  Quong Tart and family - Papers, 1831-1940
• Creator
  Quong Tart, 1850-1903
• Call number
  MLMSS 5094/Boxes 1, 3
  MLMSS 5094/vols. 2X, 4X, 5X
  MLMSS 5094/Item 6X
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1831-1940
• Type of material
  Textual Records, Clippings
• Reference code
  423875
• Issue Copy
  Microfilm : (MLMSS 5094/1, Items 1-5).
  
• Physical Description
  2 boxes, 3 outsize volumes and 1 outsize item - manuscript, typescript, clippings, printed
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Quong Tart, a wealthy tea merchant and restaurateur, was also a highly resepcted figure, philanthropist and community leader for the Chinese community in New South Wales.
  
  Mei Quong Tart was born in 1850, the son of a merchant, in the provincial town of Hsin-ning, Canton province, China. He migrated to Australia, aged nine, with his uncle and moved to the Braidwood goldfields. Quong Tart quickly assimilated into the Australian way of life becoming a fine cricketer and sportsman, a Freemason and local entrpreneur. He was naturalised in 1871.
  It was 22 years before he returned to China to visit his parents. Returning to Australia, he opened his first teashop in Sydney and met with great success. In 1889 he opened an elaborate restaurant in King Street, and a dining hall in the Queen Victoria Building in 1889 which became one of the most fashionable social centres in Sydney.
  
  Quong Tart married a young English woman when he was aged 36, and they had six children. In 1892 he built an elegant mansion, Gallop House, in Ashfield.
  
  A spokesman for the Chinese people in Australia, Quong Tart often acted as a conciliator during times of racial unrest and was active in the campaign against opium. On an official visit to China in 1894 he was awarded the title of Mandarin of the Fourth Rank (or Blue Button) by China's Emperor Kuang Hsu. Quong Tart was the first Chinese public figure to succeed in being fully accepted by the wider community. In 1902, a vicious attack and robbery left him seriously ill. He died on 26 July 1903. -- Curator's notes, Mitchell Library, 2003.
• Scope and Content
  1877-1901; Letters received by Quong Tart, his family, and `representatives of the Chinese community in NSW', being mainly thanks for addresses presented (Call No.: CY 4554, frames 1-83: MLMSS 5094/1/1)
  
  1881-1903; Letters of introduction for Quong Tart by i.a. Sir Henry Parkes, Sir William Robinson, Sir George Dibbs, William Kelynack, Royal Miners Refuge Lodge, Braidwood; and addresses to Quong Tart (Call No.: CY 4554, frames 84-104: MLMSS 5094/1/2)
  
  1883-1884; Petitions to NSW Parliament and a draft of a pamphlet, on the supression of opium in NSW (Call No.: CY 4554, frames 105-138: MLMSS 5094/1/3)
  
  1902; Letters (in Chinese) received by Quong Tart concerning an assault made on him; the crest of Quong Tart in Chinese characters (Call No.: CY 4554, frames 139-157: MLMSS 5094/1/4)
  
  Undated, 1903; Greeting cards to the Tart family; condolence cards received by Margaret Tart following the death of Quong Tart (Call No.: CY 4554, frames 158-192: MLMSS 5094/1/5)
  
  1901-1903; Accounts ledger (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/vol. 2X)
  
  MISCELLANEOUS PRINTED MATERIAL
  
  18 April 1831; Sydney Herald (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/3/1)
  
  2 January 1901; Sydney Morning Herald (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/3/1)
  
  1885-1902; Invitations, menus, concert programmes (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/3/2)
  
  1894?; Visiting cards received in Portuguese Macau (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/3/3)
  
  1894-1913; Newscuttings from an envelope labelled `Q.T.' (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/3/4)
  
  1894; `Official report of anti-opium demonstration' (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/3/5)
  
  1900; Prospectus of the Quong Tart tea company (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/3/6)
  
  1882-1894; Scrapbook of newscuttings compiled by Margaret Tart (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/vol. 4X)
  
  1886-1903; Scrapbook of newscuttings compiled by Margaret Tart (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/vol. 5X)
  
  Undated, 1888; Addresses to i.a. Earl of Hopetoun, Earl of Jersey and Sir Robert Duff, from Quong Tart and `members of the Chinese community in NSW' (Call No.: MLMSS 5094/Item 6X)
• Language
  English, Chinese
• Finding Aids
  Read the transcription of digitised pages here: archival-classic.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2017/D00007/a565.html
• General note
  
  Select items from this collection have been preserved and digitised as part of the Nelson Meers Foundation Benefaction, 2003.
  Digital order no: Album ID : 824046
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Parkes, Henry, Sir, 1815-1896
  
• Name
  Hopetoun, John Hope, Earl of, 1860-1908
  Jersey, Victor Albert George Child-Villiers, Earl of, 1845-1915
  
• Subject
  China--Emigration and immigration.
  Chinese--New South Wales.
  Chinese Australians--New South Wales.
  Duff, Robert William, Sir, 1835-1895.
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Private Lives: Families of N.S.W. - State Library of New South Wales (2001 - 3 February 2002). Applies to: MLMSS 5094/1/5: Condolence cards
  Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection - State Library of New South Wales (Jul 2003 - Jan 2004)
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE996746

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