Sailors, adventurers, diplomats, and businessmen made up the initial foreign community in Chemulpo, known today as Incheon.
You might be surprised to find out that today happens to be a day especially set apart for declarations of...
Words by Robert Neff Images from the Robert Neff Collection Up until the mid-1890s, Buddhist priests were banned from entering large cities, especially Seoul, and those who defied the ban paid for it with their lives. According to one early British visitor, George N. Curzon, who visited Korea in...
Words by Robert NeffPhotos from the collection of Robert Neff Joseon Korea was generally perceived by foreign visitors as a...
During the late Joseon era, Koreans were well-known for their fondness for children—not only their own, but foreign children as...
Words by Robert Neff Photos from the collection of Robert Neff One of the earliest modernizations to Seoul was the introduction of streetcars in 1899 by an American company. It was heralded by many people as a symbol of modernization and prosperity. But not all viewed the streetcars with anticipation...
In 1882, three courageous American officers became the first Westerners to step foot in Busan. When the intrepid elderly British adventurer Isabella Bird Bishop visited Fusan (modern Busan) in January 1894, she declared, “It is not Korea but Japan which meets one on anchoring.” She was, of course, referring to the large population of Japanese that literally dominated the foreign settlement of that port, and, for the most part, the surrounding Korean community.
We have all been taught that aviation history was made on December 17, 1903, when the Wright brothers managed to...
From unwieldy pipes to black-market cigarettes, tobacco has been an important part of Korean society for over four hundred years. The image that best typifies Koreans of the past is undoubtedly that of an old man, dressed in white, with a long tobacco pipe ready at hand. The pipe was...
In 1885, Percival Lowell published a book entitled “Choson: The Land of the Morning Calm.” It was a huge success...