Missionary Photography in Korea

“The history of Christianity in Asia is part of a story that goes back many centuries to the traditional story of the Apostle Thomas’ mission to India, the presence of Nestorian Christians in China, and the sixteenth century missions of Catholics to China and Japan. The Korean chapter begins with decades of merciless persecution of Korea’s first Catholics between 1784 and 1866, and it continues with the arrival of Protestant missionaries in the 1880s.1 Protestant missions began at a moment of cultural and spiritual crisis in Korea, when the monarchy and its institutions were collapsing and Japan was maneuvering to take Korea as a colony. Missionaries helped generate the demand for modern education in Korea and the beginnings of modern nationalism, contributed to knowledge of the world beyond Korea’s shores, and stimulated a hunger for new ideas and ways of life. It was this long-term crisis of culture in Korea that opened the way for the growth of Christianity, first during the years of Japanese colonial rule, and then during decades of national division when Christianity supported the anti-Communist state structure in South Korea and the rise of state-directed capitalism.

Foreign missionaries in Korea witnessed this history and played an important part in it. They documented their work in reports, letters, studies, plans, and photographs which comprise an important part of the historical record of modern Korean history. This exhibition presents a small sampling of the photographic record of Korea at that time, particularly before World War II, when missionaries represented an obvious challenge to Korean customs and ways of life. The photos show that Koreans were fascinated by the foreigners.

They show the essential role of foreigners as mentors and teachers. They also demonstrate the incongruities of missionary life, and something of the human investment made by missionaries in modern Korea. They also document an interesting paradox: the way missionaries made a home in Korea, but never really belonged there.”

issionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West through Christianity opens a unique window on the modern experience of the Korean people. The photographs document how the “triad” of missionary work— evangelism, education, and medicine—contributed to dramatic social change in the first half of the twentieth century. Behind the photos are the stories of women’s education, the teaching of science in medical schools, the training of new generations of leaders in churches and church-related institutions of all kinds, and the introduction of modern styles in architecture, sports, transportation, and communications. The photos show adaptations in both directions—of Koreans to modern things and of Western missionaries to the Korean environment. They remind us that the effort to bridge the distance between Korea and the West has been going on for a very long time, that it has changed the lives of many people on both sides of the encounter, and that it has had lasting and significant results.

- From Introduction -

Severance Union Medical College Album Seoul/c. 1913 Donald Clark Collection This album contains 25 photographs documenting the medical services and educational programs of Severance Union Medical College. The album may have served to mark the change in the name of the institution to Severance Union Medical College in 1913. It also may have been intended as a memorial to Louis H. Severance, the college’s great benefactor, who died during that same year.

30,000 won / US＄ 40.00

- From Western Missionaries in Korea -

MISSIONARY PHOTOGRAPHY IN KOREA Encountering the West through Christianity

M

THE KOREA SOCIETY is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization with individual and corporate members that is dedicated solely to the promotion of greater awareness, understanding and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea. In pursuit of its mission, the Society arranges programs that facilitate discussion, exchanges and research on topics of vital interest to both countries in the areas of public policy, business, education, intercultural relations and the arts. Funding for these programs is derived from contributions, endowments, grants, membership dues and program fees. From its base in New York City, the Society serves audiences across the country through its own outreach efforts and by forging strategic alliances with counterpart organizations in other cities throughout the United States as well as in Korea.

MISSIONARY PHOTOGRAPHY IN KOREA

Encountering the West through Christianity

COVER IMAGE: Louanne Norris with Her Nanny’s Daughter Kaesŏng/1933 Louanne Norris Smith Collection

Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West through Christianity Curator: Jinyoung Kim The publication of this catalog commemorates the inauguration of an exhibition titled Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West through Christianity mounted in The Korea Society Gallery from May 19—August 14, 2009.

The exhibition was made possible, in part, by the generous financial support received from The Freeman Foundation.

Comprised of over one hundred photographs and several archival objects, the exhibition is available for loan to interested venues in North America and the Republic of Korea.

For details on booking, including loan terms and available dates, please visit: http://www.koreasociety.org/arts/traveling_exhibitions/missionary_photography.html.

Edited by Donald N. Clark

With contributions by

Donald Baker Chang Uk Byun Frederick F. Carriere Hyaeweol Choi Donald N. Clark Louanne Norris Smith

Š 2009 The Korea Society 950 Third Avenue, 8FL New York, NY 10022 www.koreasocity.org All rights reserved.

No text or photographs from this book may be reproduced without prior permission in writing from The Korea Society.

Published by Seoul Selection 105-2 Sagan-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-190, Korea Phone (82-2) 734-9567, Fax (82-2) 734-9562 http://www.seoulselection.com email: publisher@seoulselection.com ISBN 978-89-91913-59-2 03230 PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHT Maryknoll Mission Archives: 71, 73, 77, 87, 91, 120, 123, 163, 171, 172, and 173 Donald Clark Collection: 11, 15, 18, 25, 83, 131, 145, 146, 147, 149, 151, 152, 176, 177, and back cover Norman Thorpe Collection: 74, 155, and 161 Underwood Collection: 75, 79, 81, 113, 125, and 159 Mission Photograph Collection, General Commission on Archives and History, The United Methodist Church Madison, New Jersey: 89, 93, 99, 100, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 111, 133, 135, 153, 166, 167, 169, and 175 William Elliot Griffis Collection, Rutgers University: 14, 69, and 143 Louanne Norris Smith Collection: 64, 65, and 178-179 The Moffett Korea Collection Special Collections of the Princeton Theological Seminary: 95, 96, 97, 117, 119, 127, 129, and 139 Seoul National University Hospital Collection: 141 Collection of The Presbyterian Historical Society: 70, 121, and 165 COLOPHON All photographs have been digitally restored and processed using Photoshop and printed in a manner that retains the archival quality of the images as much as possible.

Except for Seoul and Pyongyang, all place names are romanized according to the McCune-Reischauer system. In most instances, the spelling of Korean names also follows the McCune-Reischauer system. Exceptions are made for well-established variant spellings, however, including those based on individual preferences when known. Lastly, all Korean names are given in the customary Korean way with the surname listed first followed by the personal name.

COPY EDITORS: Donald N. Clark, Frederick F. Carriere, Samuel Jamier, Daniel Levine, and Ellen Salem CAPTION RESEARCH: Frederick F. Carriere, Jinyoung Kim, Heewon Kim, and Eunice Choi BOOK DESIGN: Seho Kim PHOTO RETOUCHING: Natalee Newcombe INDEX: Eunice Herrington Printed and Bound in the Republic of Korea

contents Introduction

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Western Missionaries in Korea Their Origins, Work, Significance, and Legacy

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Women and Protestant Christianity in Korea

20

Korean Responses to Foreign Missionaries in Early Modern Korea

30

The Religious Revolution in Modern Korean History

46

Growing Up “Foreign� in Korea

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Missionary Life: Encounter and Adaptation

67

Exhibiting Modernity

85

Education for All

115

Medicine and Miracles

137

Christianizing Korea, Koreanizing Christianity

157

Index

181

Donald N. Clark

Hyaeweol Choi

Chang Uk Byun

interview with Don Baker

Louanne Norris Smith

Introduction Donald N. Clark, Trinity University

Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West through Christianity opens a unique window on the modern experience of the Korean people. The photographs document how the “triad” of missionary work—evangelism, education, and medicine—contributed to dramatic social change in the first half of the twentieth century. Behind the photos are the stories of women’s education, the teaching of science in medical schools, the training of new generations of leaders in churches and church-related institutions of all kinds, and the introduction of modern styles in architecture, sports, transportation, and communications. The photos show adaptations in both directions—of Koreans to modern things and of Western missionaries to the Korean environment.

They remind us that the effort to bridge the distance between Korea and the West has been going on for a very long time, that it has changed the lives of many people on both sides of the encounter, and that it has had lasting and significant results.

The exhibition is remarkable on many levels, not least because it covers the period of Japanese colonial rule in Korea between 1910 and 1945. While there are hints of Japanese influence in certain clothing styles and buildings, the photos do not dwell on the miseries of Koreans under Japanese imperialism. This is partly due to the fact that Christianity grew as a Korean movement during the period, apart from Japanese political control. The photos reveal the direct appeal of Christianity to the Korean people through such things as the translation of books and religious texts into Korean han’gŭl script, the use of Korean in churches and Christian schools, and the offering of education to ordinary Korean people. Some would also add that Christianity seemed to flow together with Korean nationalism under Japanese rule, being associated with the March First Independence Movement of 1919, further identifying it with the modern aspirations of Koreans.

The northern provinces of Korea were prime areas for Christian propagation before World War II. The photos point to the influence of Christianity radiating from Pyongyang, once called the “Jerusalem of the East.” The ironies abound, not least in the fact that Kim Il-sung himself built one of Pyongyang’s two postwar Protestant churches in memory of his mother, who once had served as a Presbyterian deaconess. Ironic also that it was American bombers that destroyed nearly all the churches and vestiges of mission work in North Korea during the Korean War, an ordeal during which many thousands of Christians lost their lives or were forced to flee to the south. The photos cannot but evoke sadness at the loss of what is seen to have been a healthy and vital Christian heartland in North Korea.

The photos cover Catholic as well as Protestant missions throughout Korea. Catholics had important centers in North Korea as well, such as the Benedictine abbey at Tŏkwŏn, near Wŏnsan, in addition to still-extant centers to the south, such as in Yongsan and Myŏngdong, in Seoul. The photos suggest the intimacy between foreign missionaries and Korean converts, in village chapels

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and schools, worship services, and clinics devoted to the health of common people. They make clear one of the most important reasons for the “success” of Christianity throughout the period: the appeal to common people through the revolutionary idea that all are welcome and equal before the throne of God. One additional strength of the exhibition deserves special mention: the photos of medical work, which contributed so much to the beginnings of science education in Korea. The healing ministry of Jesus himself was the originating motive for the missionaries’ significant investment in clinics, hospitals, and the training of Korean doctors and nurses. This became a conduit, however, for much more than the “evangelization” of patients. Korean medical students were on the cutting edge of modern academic knowledge in Korea. To qualify for admission to medical school they had to have an academic foundation in modern subjects. After medical training in Korea, many of them pursued higher studies abroad and returned to occupy positions of high prestige in Korean society. Under Japanese colonial rule, their access to modern education would have been limited to second-class status in Japanese schools. Instead, the Christian emphasis on medical training made them part of a modern leadership class that played a significant role in creating an independent Korea after the war.

The photos in this exhibition, drawn as they are from a handful of collections, hint at much greater resources for the study of Korea in the archives of the major missionary societies, such as the Maryknoll Archives in Ossining, New York, the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, the Methodist Mission archives in Madison, New Jersey, and the United Church of Canada archives in Toronto. These collections, among others, contain hundreds of archive boxes full of correspondence, reports, photos, publications, official materials, and memorabilia collected steadily and faithfully by the more than two thousand missionaries who devoted decades of their lives to service in Korea before World War II. Some of the material is idiosyncratic, but all of it is rich in the details of daily existence in a Korea that is now almost forgotten. One measure of the success of this exhibition will be if viewers are inspired to delve into these archives to bring to light something of their rich meaning.

As editor of this catalog volume I am indebted to colleagues at The Korea Society who conceived the project and saw it to completion, foremost among them Executive Vice President Frederick F. Carriere and Jinyoung Kim, senior program officer for the arts. It has been a privilege to work with the various writers in the volume, Professors Chang Uk Byun, Hyaeweol Choi, and Don Baker, and Louanne Smith, who shares something of my own story as a “missionary kid” growing up in Korea. As professionals who study Christianity’s place in the story of modern Korea, we are excited and gratified that The Korea Society has mounted this exhibition, and we feel honored to be associated with it.

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Western Missionaries in Korea Their Origins, Work, Significance, and Legacy Donald N. Clark, Trinity University

The history of Christianity in Asia is part of a story that goes back many centuries to the traditional story of the Apostle Thomas’ mission to India, the presence of Nestorian Christians in China, and the sixteenth century missions of Catholics to China and Japan. The Korean chapter begins with decades of merciless persecution of Korea’s first Catholics between 1784 and 1866, and it continues with the arrival of Protestant missionaries in the 1880s.1 Protestant missions began at a moment of cultural and spiritual crisis in Korea, when the monarchy and its institutions were collapsing and Japan was maneuvering to take Korea as a colony.

Missionaries helped generate the demand for modern education in Korea and the beginnings of modern nationalism, contributed to knowledge of the world beyond Korea’s shores, and stimulated a hunger for new ideas and ways of life. It was this long-term crisis of culture in Korea that opened the way for the growth of Christianity, first during the years of Japanese colonial rule, and then during decades of national division when Christianity supported the anti-Communist state structure in South Korea and the rise of state-directed capitalism.

Foreign missionaries in Korea witnessed this history and played an important part in it.

They documented their work in reports, letters, studies, plans, and photographs which comprise an important part of the historical record of modern Korean history. This exhibition presents a small sampling of the photographic record of Korea at that time, particularly before World War II, when missionaries represented an obvious challenge to Korean customs and ways of life. The photos show that Koreans were fascinated by the foreigners. They show the essential role of foreigners as mentors and teachers. They also demonstrate the incongruities of missionary life, and something of the human investment made by missionaries in modern Korea. They also document an interesting paradox: the way missionaries made a home in Korea, but never really belonged there.

Two “Missionary Eras” in Twentieth-Century Korea There were two distinct periods of Korea missionary work in the period between 1884 and the end of the twentieth century. The first period ended with the evacuation of all Protestant and most Catholic missionaries just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The many hundreds of Protestant missionaries who had pioneered “the work” in Korea were gone by 1941, forced out of the country by Japanese pressure. What remained of their work had passed to Korean (and in some cases Japanese) management.

The second era began with the reintroduction of missionaries under the U.S. Army occupation in South Korea (1945-48). In comparing the period between 1884 and 1941 and the period that began with the American occupation of South Korea in 1945, one notes some important contrasts. In the earlier period, missionaries were not part of the political structure and often signaled opposition to Japanese colonial rule. In the years before 1941, Christianity was strongest in northern Korea,

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particularly in the provinces of Hwanghae and North and South P’yŏng’an. However, after 1945, Western missionaries were affiliated with the U.S. military occupation and confined to South Korea below the thirty-eighth parallel. Committed to the democratization of Korea, Christian churches in general supported the American regime and the state created in 1948, under the Christian president Syngman Rhee (1948-60). Mainstream Protestant Christianity was strongly anti-Communist in this period and inclined to tolerate the ultraconservatism and militarism of the regimes between 1961 and 1993.2 As Korea began healing from colonialism and civil war, and the economy in the South began to take off in the 1960s, the churches of Korea began to multiply and prosper. They adapted to revolutionary currents in Korean social life including urbanization, industrialization, and social movements involving students and working and middle classes. Though missionaries continued to work in Korea, they evolved into “fraternal workers,” supplying personnel with specific specialties in medicine and education to already self-governing Christian institutions. By the 1990s, Western missionaries were scarcely to be found in Korea; indeed, Korea itself had become one of the world’s most missionary-oriented countries, sending thousands of Korean Christians abroad to minister to local people as well as to overseas Korean communities.

Reasons for the “Success” of Christianity in Korea It is often noted that Christianity has “succeeded” more in Korea than in the neighboring countries of China and Japan. This assertion is based on the visibility of churches in South Korea, notably in the red neon crosses that dot the urban landscape, and the statistics that consistently show more than a quarter of South Koreans claiming Protestant or Catholic membership.3 There are many theories about the unique receptivity of Koreans to the Christian gospel. One explanation is that Koreans were experiencing a national spiritual crisis because of the collapse of their political system and the imposition of Japanese colonial control between 1900 and 1920. Another, having more to do with the period 1920 to 1940, is that Koreans were hungry for independence and saw being Christian as a way to cover being anti-Japanese. A third theory concerns the Korean appetite for advancement and modern things, such as education and medical science, accounting for their enthusiastic embrace of education in mission schools. One theory, relating to the postwar era, is that Christianity was associated with the United States, Korea’s dominant patron and a symbol in Korean minds of wealth and power, represented by the military intervention to stop Communism during the Korean War. And a final theory, applicable throughout the century, is that Koreans became Christians out of genuine religious and spiritual experience, through acceptance of the Christian gospel message. In some cases this was due to their existing cultural patterns of religious understanding, which fit especially well with the spiritualism of Korean Protestant teaching.

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Korea’s Religious Tradition Korea has always had a rich and syncretic religious tradition of its own, going back to Animism and Shamanism and the richly populated universe of Korean spirits. Chinese cosmology has always informed Korean understandings of the mystical, with divination and geomancy constituting a strong streak in Korean thought. The South Korean flag bears a design rooted in the Book of Changes (I Ching). The layout of Seoul city when it was founded to be the royal capital of Chosŏn demonstrates the Koreans’ belief in the principles of p’ungsu (Chinese feng shui). Many of the place names in Seoul are drawn from the Confucian classics. Neighborhoods have spots that are associated with all manner of Chinese deities, such as the shrine to Kwan’u, the Chinese War God, just outside the East Gate.

Buddhist temples, monasteries, and relics can be found everywhere in Korea. Small sects are devoted to worshipping Tan’gun, and more recently, the followers of “new religions” and their leaders. Entire belief systems have grown up around the prophecies contained in the mid-Chosŏn Chŏnggamnok and the late-Chosŏn Religion of the Heavenly Way (Ch’ŏndogyo), to cite two more recent examples.

As Don Baker shows in his recent book on Korean spirituality, Korea is saturated with signs of interest in things of the spirit. With his wide understanding of the different currents of Korean belief through the centuries, Baker places Christianity in a cultural context that helps explain why Koreans responded actively to the messages brought by missionaries, and the first few generations of Korean Christian leaders, before World War II. One of his main points is the spreading of Christianity among ordinary people via the use of everyday language.

Protestant pastors were the first Korean ritual specialists other than practitioners of the folk religion to use the language spoken in everyday life as the primary language of ritual. Catholics used Latin (until the 1960s); Confucians used classical Chinese, and Buddhists used a special form of classical Chinese as well as Sanskrit. Even the Religion of the Heavenly Way (Chŏndogyo) relied heavily on classical Chinese material. Protestants, however, translated their bible into Korean, and they preached and prayed in Korean. Their preference for the vernacular made Protestant worship services easier for the average person to understand and less intimidating to those who might want to participate in them.4

Baker’s discussion suggests an additional explanation for the “success” of Christianity in Korea: its association with education and status. In many ways the Christian message in Korea represented advancement—through education, social mobility, and affinity with like-minded people—as well as through the general promotion of human rights and spiritual comfort. Combinations of these desirable things constituted a powerful attraction to people who were poor and oppressed under Japanese rule and after centuries of rigid class discrimination.

Who Were the Missionaries?

As a rule, Western missionaries who served in Korea were college-educated and represented origins in all parts of their homelands. The regional origins of the separate “Northern” and “Southern” Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries were reflected in their regional accents when speaking English.5 They were also reflected in subliminal differences over theology and procedure on the

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Korean mission field, but as a rule they did not impede the effectiveness of “the work.” Ordained ministers, always men, were the backbone of the missions. By definition they had seminary degrees, normally at the Master’s level. Medical doctors had M.D. degrees or the equivalent. Some educators had advanced degrees but many missionary teachers had only bachelor’s degrees or less. Women missionaries, many of whom were wives of better-educated male missionaries, taught with little more than high school diplomas, still an advanced standard in pre-war Korea.

The typical missionary to Korea was a new graduate of college and seminary, inspired in church by missionary sermons and the enthusiasm for expansionism that was sweeping America in the late nineteenth century. At the time, the word “missionary” conjured up a clean-living young volunteer filled with noble impulses to “serve the Lord and spread the gospel.” Mission boards, in recruiting missionary candidates, strongly preferred married men, and though the wives were often talented people, they took a decidedly secondary role, partly because they were expected to establish exemplary Christian homes and families in the field and not necessarily to do missionary work in their own right. This created a highly gendered power structure within the missions in Korea, with missionary wives at a disadvantage when it came to voting matters. A missionary had to pass an advanced Korean language exam before being allowed to vote on mission matters, and most missionary wives never learned Korean well enough to pass the exam.

The exception to this pattern was single women missionaries, discussed by Professor Hyaeweol Choi elsewhere in this volume. Single women missionaries had their own type of evangelistic work focused on Korean women in schools and churches, and they normally learned the language as well as the ordained male missionaries. In tandem with their Korean chŏndo puin (“bible woman”) they drew village women out of the recesses of their homes into contact with other women in church, and with the wider world. They enrolled them in classes that taught them how to read and lead. Men could not have done this: Korean conservatism would have made an instant scandal of any attempt by a male missionary to enter into any kind of “women’s work.” The nature of the women missionaries’ work and the depth of their social contacts with local Christian women made firstclass linguists of many. Some of them became more comfortable in Korean society than they were in their own, taking up wearing hanbok (Korean-stlye) clothing on a daily basis and living most of the time in Korean homes.

Stacy Roberts with his Korean Tutor Sŏnch’ŏn, North P’yŏng’an Province/1937 Donald Clark Collection

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Pioneers of the Southern Presbyterian Mission ChĹ?lla Province/1892 Collection of The Presbyterian Historical Society

This is a group portrait of the first missionaries to Korea from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), who were commonly known as Southern Presbyterians. The Southern Presbyterians opened their first mission station in November 1892. In agreement with the other missions, they chose to begin their evangelical work in ChĹ?lla Province. They are pictured in front of one of their properties. Beginning from the top row, left to right, are: Mrs. William M. Junkin; Mrs. William D. Reynolds; an unidentified Korean language teacher; Lewis Tate; William M. Junkin and a child who died in infancy; William D. Reynolds; Mattie Tate; and Linnie Davis, who later became Mrs. William B. Harrison.

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Funeral Cortège of Bishop Florian Démange Taegu/February, 1938 Maryknoll Mission Archives

Florian Démange (1875–1938) was appointed as the first bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Taegu by the Paris Foreign Missions Society (Les Missions Étrangères de Paris), or M.E.P. He adopted the Korean name Ahn Sehwa and spent the last 28 years of his life in Korea. The length of his funeral cortège and the large number of wreaths on display are reflections of the bishop’s high standing in the local community. The storefront sign appearing in the middle of the photograph indicates that the building is a funeral parlor. The spire in the distance belongs to the Taegu Cheil Presbyterian Church, the first to be established in Taegu, as its name in Korean indicates.

The first Western Catholic missionaries to enter Korea were French missionary priests dispatched by the M.E.P. They began arriving in Korea in the 1840s by stealth, either via the Korean border with Manchuria or the Yellow Sea, to proselytize to a growing Korean flock. During its 350-year history since its establishment in 1659, the M.E.P. has dispatched over 4,200 missionary priests to Asia with the mission of adapting Catholicism to local customs, establishing a native clergy and keeping close contacts with Rome. In the nineteenth century, local persecutions of the Society’s priests were often a pretext for French military interventions in Asia, including the French campaign against Korea in 1856 (pyŏng’in yangyo).

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Translating the Bible into Korean Chŏnju/1910 Norman Thorpe Collection

William D. Reynolds of the Southern Presbyterian Mission is at work with his Korean assistants, Yi Sŭng-du and Kim Chung-sam, translating the Bible into Korean written entirely in the native Korean alphabet. At the time, the written language of the elite in Korea was Chinese, but the missionaries preferred to use the native Korean alphabet (han’gŭl), since texts written in it were accessible to anyone who had only a basic education.

Continuing the practice pioneered by Catholic missionaries, who began publishing excerpts from the gospels in the native Korean alphabet in 1780, Protestant missionaries began to use it extensively beginning in the later nineteenth century. This was one of the major factors that made it possible for the Christian faith to be spread rapidly. The widespread circulation of Christian literature promoted the general use of the native Korean alphabet, which soon contributed to a sharp rise in literacy among Koreans.

This postcard was one of a series meant to promote overseas missions. It was designed by the Presbyterian Committee of Publication in Richmond, Virginia, and printed in Germany to take advantage of superior German color printing techniques.

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The Board of Translators of the New Testament Pyongyang/1904 Underwood Collection

The three men in the front row are: (l–r) William D. Reynolds (1867-1951); Horace Grant Underwood (18591916); and James Scarth Gale (1863-1937). The Koreans in the back row are: (l–r) Kim Chung-sam; Kim Myongjun; and Yi Chang-jik. Although Reynolds, Underwood and Gale were ordained ministers and did evangelistic work, they are more often remembered today for their intellectual labors as bible translators and (in Underwood’s case) the establishment of a major university. As they were especially gifted in the Korean language, these pioneer missionaries were chosen by their missions to form the Board of Translators for the Korean Protestant Bible. Over the years, several other early missionaries served on the Board of Translators, especially Henry G. Appenzeller and George Heber Jones, who also became widely known for their pioneering educational work in Korea.

The literary output of Gale was particularly noteworthy. He eventually authored or translated over fifty books and articles, including a Korean–English dictionary, a history of Korea, one of the first Korean bibles, and Korean versions of Robinson Crusoe and Pilgrim’s Progress. Gale’s History of the Korean People was required reading for missionaries and scholars working in Korea for many decades. This seminal work provided a wealth of cultural information on Korean ethnology and folklore, in addition to the historical narrative. For new arrivals on the missionary field, Gale’s A Korean–English Dictionary also had a long life as an indispensable tool for learning the language.

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Underwood Family in Korean Attire Pittsfield, MA/1923 Underwood Collection

Horace H. Underwood, his wife Ethel, and their son, Horace G. Underwood II, model Korean clothing for their American relatives. The Underwood family was staying at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Stevens (née Underwood) while on home leave in the United States. Missionaries sometimes dressed in traditional Korean attire when they visited American churches to raise funds for their activities in Korea.

Four generations of the Underwood family were associated with Yonsei University. Horace G. Underwood (Wŏn Tu-u), the first ordained Presbyterian missionary in Korea, founded the college that was the forerunner of the university shortly before his death in 1916, and his only son Horace H. Underwood (Wŏn Han-gyŏng)—who is depicted in this photograph—was associated with the college for many years, initially as a faculty member and later as its president. His son, Horace G. Underwood II (Wŏn Il-han), who is the child in this photograph, served on the board of trustees of Yonsei University for most of his adult life right up until his death in 2004. One of his sons, Horace H. Underwood II (Wŏn Han-gwang), served at Yonsei as a faculty member for many years and the director of the international division until he resigned in the late 1990s to become the executive director of the Fulbright program in Korea.

Tragically, Ethel Underwood was shot to death in 1949 by one of two young men who had broken into the Underwood home on the Yonsei University campus in search of a prominent anti-Communist activist. It appears Ethel Underwood got caught in the crossfire, and her death was not a deliberate act of revenge for a recent expulsion of suspected Communists from the university, as some had suspected it to be in the highly inflamed atmosphere of those days in Korea.

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Missionary Children: The Roberts Daughters Sŏnch’ŏn, North Pyŏng’an Province/c. 1910s Donald Clark Collection

This is a photograph of (l–r) Grace, Eugenia, and Lucy, three of the six children of Stacy and Evelyn Roberts who were all born in Korea. The Robertses were Northern Presbyterian missionaries who served in Korea for over three decades, from 1907 until 1939. They were stationed first in Sŏnch’ŏn, North P’yŏng’an Province, and then later in Pyongyang. Five of their children became graduates of the Pyongyang Foreign School, which was one of the leading international high schools in Northeast Asia for the children of missionaries.

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Christian Names and Emerging Identities Pyongyang/1924 Maryknoll Mission Archives

The women in this picture are Catholic widows who sold their possessions to finance the building of an addition to a Catholic school. Three of them are conspicuously holding rosary beads. Their baptismal names are (l–r) Susanna [Kim], Lucy [Han], Mary [Jŏng], and Magdalene [Ri]. Names referencing biblical figures or Christian saints became popular among Korean women in the 1920s.

Korean women adopted Christian names as a way of signaling their growing awareness of themselves as unique individuals. Before she adopted her Christian name, Esther Pak (1877–1910), the first female Korean physician, was known as Chŏmdongi (점동이). Young women typically were given an informal nickname of this kind, conveying a demeaning reference to a certain physical trait or oddity—in Pak’s case, a person with one or more birthmarks or moles on her face. Another example of the practice of giving women demeaning names is Mirisa Cha (1880–1951), who established a school now known as Duksung Women’s University. Prior to adopting a Christian name, Cha was known as Sŏpsŏpi (섭섭이), an onomatopoeic expression of regret that suggested her parents would have preferred to have given birth to a son rather than a daughter.

Christian women in Korea also adopted the practice of writing their Christian names in Chinese characters, which implied a claim to an enhanced personal dignity and perhaps even a potential equality with men. The name adopted by the first Korean president of Ewha Womans University, Kim Hwal-lan, exemplified this practice. Originally known by the demeaning given name of Kidŭk (기득), meaning “vested” in the sense of something acquired, she adopted the baptismal name of Helen and transcribed it phonetically in Chinese characters as Hwal Ran (活蘭), or “Hwallan,” as pronounced in Korean.

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Transition to Modernity Location Unknown/1920 Maryknoll Mission Archives

John Myon Chang, also known as Chang Myŏn (1899-1966), who is seated on the right, poses with an unidentified companion. This photograph exemplifies the contrasting modern and traditional styles of dress worn by young Korean men in the early twentieth century. John Myon Chang hailed from one of Korea’s most prominent Catholic families. He was educated in a missionary school in Korea, came to the United States to study law at Manhattan College in New York City, and then returned to Korea in 1925.

Missionary schools, while focused primarily on Christian formation, also exposed their Korean students to modern Western ideas and technologies. To reform-minded Koreans in the early twentieth century, democracy was one of the most attractive features of Western culture. By 1910, when the Japanese formally annexed Korea as a colony, Christian missionary schools were viewed by many Koreans as a base for democratic resistance to oppressive Japanese colonial rule.

After the end of World War II, Chang served as the Republic of Korea’s first ambassador to the United States and later was appointed as the second prime minister of the Republic of Korea during the First Republic. In 1956, he launched a political career and was elected vice president. After serving a brief stint as prime minister during the Second Republic, between 1960 and 1961, Chang’s political career came to an abrupt end as a result of a successful coup d’état led by Park Chung-hee that led to decades of military dictatorship.

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The Wedding Feast Hamhŭng/1904 The Moffett Korea Collection Special Collections of the Princeton Theological Seminary

Edith MacRae is invited to sit next to the bride and groom as a guest of honor at a wedding feast. Joining her is Louise H. McCully, another member of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission. The feast was part of a Koreanstyle Christian wedding conducted by Edith’s husband, Duncan MacRae, who was an ordained Canadian Presbyterian missionary.

Louise H. McCully later played a major role in promoting greater equality for women within the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in Korea. In recognition of her accomplishments, in 1928, McCully was elected as the first president of the National Organization of Korean Presbyterian Women.

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A Crowd Gathers for the Wedding Hamhŭng/1904 The Moffett Korea Collection Special Collections of the Princeton Theological Seminary  An ideal vantage point for observing the unusual goings-on during a Korean-style Christian wedding, conducted by the Canadian Presbyterian missionary, Duncan MacRae, is provided by a building sturdy enough to support many scores of spectators as well as the weight of a heavy tile roof.

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Soongsil Christian Academy’s Champion Football Team Pyongyang/1925 The Moffett Korea Collection Special Collections of the Princeton Theological Seminary

The self-confident pride of being champions is palpable in the demeanor of the members of this football team. The championship ball is inscribed with the names of the members of the team to immortalize their accomplishment.

The introduction of sports as one of the subjects in the curriculum of Christian schools was a major innovation.

There was nothing comparable to sports in the traditional Korean educational system. In fact, traditionally, any activity that involved physical exertion was associated in the Korean mind with the lowest classes.

Among scholars and intellectuals, in particular, excessive physical exercise was regarded as inappropriate behavior for a gentleman. Once sports became integrated into the school curriculum, however, physical culture quickly grew in popularity. In the context of the colonial era, being physically stronger than their Japanese colonial overlords was a matter of great pride to Koreans, and athletic contests sometimes became veiled ways to vent political frustration and resentment.

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Teaching Surgery Techniques Seoul/c. 1913 Donald Clark Collection

Alfred I. Ludlow, who was a Northern Presbyterian missionary doctor in Korea from 1900 until 1938, carries out a surgical procedure at Severance Hospital as medical students hover around him in the operating room. Ludlow taught surgery and surgical pathology at Severance Union Medical College where he was head of the Surgical Department. Ludlow pioneered the use of amytal sodium in intravenous anesthesia in Korea. As a co-founder of the college’s Research Department, Ludlow also pioneered the study of diseases that were prevalent in Korea, especially those caused by various parasites. Reflecting the breath of his interest in Korean culture, which was a characteristic he shared with many early Western missionaries in Korea, Ludlow published an article in 1923 titled “Pottery of the Korai [Koryŏ] Dynasty, (924-1392)” in the Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Vol. XIV: pp. 33-39).

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Optical Department at Severance Seoul/c. 1913 Mission Photograph Collection General Commission on Archives and History The United Methodist Church, Madison, New Jersey  The Optical Department at Severance Union Medical College was advanced for the day. It also had distinctive Korean touches as reflected in the various character recognition boards for eye examinations that are on display in this photograph. For example, the board on the counter behind the technician displays Chinese characters, presumably for the benefit of patients who were erudite but not familiar with English.

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Methodist Retreat in the Kŭmgang Mountains Kangwŏn/1931 Louanne Norris Smith Collection

The religious denominations regularly organized leadership conferences or “retreats” for their members that combined training with worship in a setting of inspiring natural beauty. The Kŭmgang Mountains (Diamond Mountains) in Kangwŏn Province were a favorite venue for religious retreats. This is the commemorative photo of a Methodist group on retreat there in 1931.