Words by Robert NeffPhotos from the collection of Robert Neff Joseon Korea was generally perceived by foreign visitors as a...
From unwieldy pipes to black-market cigarettes, tobacco has been an important part of Korean society for over four hundred years....
We have all been taught that aviation history was made on December 17, 1903, when the Wright brothers managed to go airborne for 12 seconds in a heavier-than-air vehicle that we now call an aircraft. But were they the first? Korea’s history is also sprinkled with accounts of flight. In...
Words by Robert Neff Images from the Robert Neff Collection Up until the mid-1890s, Buddhist priests were banned from...
Living History: 20 Ways to See Korea as it Used to Be A guide to authentic history tourism in South Korea....
Korea, in the summer of 1894, was a hotbed of intrigue and uncertainty. China and Japan were on the brink of war and many journalists eagerly made their way to Korea in hopes of witnessing the opening shots. Frank G. Carpenter was one of these journalists. Carpenter described the city...
Words by Robert Neff Photos from the collection of Robert Neff One of the earliest modernizations to Seoul was the...
You might know that March 1st is a 빨간날 bbalgan nal or “Red Day”, meaning a national public holiday in...
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.
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