[Trade Card] Dr. Wong Woo / Chinese Physician and Surgeon : 776 [764-66] Clay St., San Francisco, California. 3 x 5”, printed on front and verso. Small photo of Woo and a red stamp noting the address change (Undated, but ca. 1900-1906, the year of Woo’s death). Rare. WorldCat locates only one institutional copy, at the University of Rochester.
Text on the front reads: “Dr. Wong Woo, favorably known to the People of San Francisco, will be in constant attendance, and invites the patronage of the Public for his extensive variety of herbs and teas, which will be furnished to his customers at reasonable rates…” On verso, is Woo’s statement “to the public”, including those who were “prejudiced against the Chinese mode of ministering to the ills to which human flesh is heir”…through ignorance of the methods and remedies employed”. Using only a “feel of the pulse” as diagnosis, he “guaranteed” a cure for Rheumatism, Piles, Dyspepsia, Consumption, Asthma, Kidney Disease, Blindness, Insanity, Heart Disease, Dyphtheria, Cancer, Tumors – and even “the most severe gunshot wounds”.
His patients included the wealthiest Chinatown merchants, as well as hundreds of socially-prominent Caucasians – including Leland Stanford who, according to a newspaper account published after Woo’s death, was among the Chinese physician’s “regular and unashamed patrons”. Woo’s established practice dates to the early 1880s, at the close of the Kearney era of violent anti-Chinese racism in San Francisco, which may account for the rumors that he was an Opium smuggler, which he fervently denied, insisting this “restoratives” were entirely herbal. Adopting two little Chinese girls “rescued” by white missionaries from abusive parents, Woo was considered a cultured philanthropist by the many Caucasian friends whom he entertained at his elegant home at the edge of Chinatown, He lost that house in the San Frandcisco Earthquake, and suffering great financial losses, he died months after that disaster.