A Chronology of Chinese-Americans

1785

Individual Chinese are reported in Pennsylvania.

1788

Chinese sailors are reported in Hawaii.

1818

Five Chinese students are enrolled at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut.

1830

Three Chinese reside in the United States according to the census report.

1830s

Chinese "sugar masters" working in Hawaii. Chinese sailors and peddlers in New York.

1847

Three Chinese students arrive in New York City on April 12. They enter the Manson Academy, Monson, Massachusetts. One of them Yung Wing enters Yale University in 1850 and graduates in 1854 with a B.A. degree, the first Chinese to graduate in the United States. Chinese students are brought to the United States by Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown, head of Morrison School, the first English school in China.

1848

Three Chinese (two men and one woman) immigrants reach San Francisco. They have sailed on the Eagle.

1849

Significant immigration begins with the California gold rush.

The first Chinese Museum opens on Broadway between Spring and Prince Streets, New York City.

Return to Chronology