Words by Robert NeffPhotos from the collection of Robert Neff Joseon Korea was generally perceived by foreign visitors as a...
Words by Robert Neff Photos from the collection of Robert Neff In the 1890s there was a gold rush in...
Words by Robert Neff In this humorous anecdote from the turn of the 20th century, an American diplomat and a mob of Korean children strike up an unexpected friendship based on practical jokes. Horace N. Allen, the American minister to Korea from 1897-1905, found that his fondness for bicycle riding drew the...
It seems no matter how much research you do or how many travel books you buy and (maybe) read, some...
Words BY Robert Neff Photos courtesy of the Robert Neff collection A skirmish between Japanese and Russian warships in February...
Photos courtesy of the Robert Neff collection The anti-Western sentiment pervasive in Pyongyang today has a long history, as historian Robert Neff recounts. Much as it is now, Pyongyang in the late 1880s and early 1890s was pretty much anti-Western. The legacy of the General Sherman in 1866 gives testimony...
Words by Robert Neff With the horrible destruction of the Korean War came abject poverty. People did whatever they could...
Words by Robert Neff, Photos courtesy of the Robert Neff collection As the primary way of accessing Seoul during the early...
The onset of night turned the busy streets of Seoul into dusky lanes frequented by veiled women, daring foreigners, sinister robbers, and even ghosts. The night streets of Seoul have fascinated foreign visitors since Korea’s opening to the West in 1882. There was something mystical in the manner that the...
The six-century old Wongaksa Pagoda lay in ruins until Westerners in Seoul began to take an interest in it. One of the most interesting but least known historic sites in Seoul is Tapgol Park (탑골공원), also known as Pagoda Park.