Supporting Philatelists Since 1952
Kim Haksu (金學洙, 1919-2009) was one of the most celebrated twentieth-century Korean artists. He painted in a style which was influenced both by Korean traditions and Western concepts of painting. Kim Haksu is most noted for his depictions of events and scenes in late nineteenth and early twentieth century, showing both customs and significant buildings […]
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This set of stamps (SG 844 – 847), issued on 5 March, 1970, depicts the Tale of the Heavenly Maiden and the Woodcutter. Like the Tale of K’ongjwi and P’atjwi – the Korean version of the Story of Cinderella, this tale is the Korean version of another of the world’s most wide-spread and historic tales, […]
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This set of stamps (SG 839-842), depicting the Tale of the Origin of the Sun and Moon’, was issued on 5 January, 1970. The previous set of stamps (SG 828 -831) narrated the Tale of the Rabbit’s Liver. The setting of the narrative is entirely fanciful with speaking turtles, rabbits, and the appearance of the […]
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The second set of stamps depicting a folktale (SG 828 – 831) was issued on 1 November, 1969 and narrates a ‘quintessentially’ Korean folktale, the Tale of the Rabbit’s Liver. Although the tales of Hŭngbu and Nŏlbu and K’ongjwi and P’atjwi teach that good behaviour is rewarded in the end, and evil or unkind behaviour […]
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We have already looked at the Tale of Hŭngbu and Nŏlbu, the story of a poor but virtuous younger brother and a rich but greedy older brother, which appeared on a set of four stamps issued in 1970. We noted that the story consisted of two contrasting sections which emphasised the rewards for kind and […]
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Images of folklore (traditional customs, material culture, folk tales) are commonly depicted on the stamps of many nations to represent their national culture to both a domestic and international audience. The Republic of Korea has issued a number of stamps on folkloric themes. In a series of short articles over the next few months, I […]
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We all know and sadly recognise that the Korean nation has been divided since the end of the Second World War, and that a devastating civil war was fought there in the early 1950s. These two unfortunate facts, however, are the source of a major difference in the way in which the two governments of […]
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This postcard is an interesting example of a postcard which had been created for one purpose (a Christmas greeting to be sent by Korean soldiers) which was used by a Methodist missionary, Revd. Finis B. Jeffery, to a mission supporter in Texas in 1959 to both send a Christmas greeting, and to give the recipient […]
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The cover discussed in the article is from Mrs. C. N. Weems, a Methodist missionary in Wŏnsan, Korea in 1934.
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This cover is from M L Swinehart a missionary in Kwangju to an address in Virginia, USA dated to 1926.
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One of our Korea Stamp Society members has the fortune to have in his collection a genuinely postally used postcard that was mailed just before the start of the Korean War in 1950. At the time of the purchase, our member did not realize the significance of the postcard; he was just interested in obtaining […]
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(A recent listing of a postcard on Ebay led to a series of emails amongst active KSS members. James Grayson, who lived for several decades in Korea and knows a lot about the history of churches in Korea, created this text, together with Florian Eichhorn, in answer to the questions raised.) This post card forms […]
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The academic publishers Routledge has just published a new book edited by Prof. Stanley D. Brunn of the University of Kentucky on the subject of stamps as a source for documentary research on political trends, changes and transitions. Stanley Brunn, along with Jack Child and David Scott, has been among the leading Anglophone scholars to […]
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On 20 August, 2021, Korea Post celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Kim Taegŏn (金大建, 1821-1846), the first Korean Roman Catholic priest, and a martyr. He was a member of a yangban or aristocratic family who had converted secretly to Catholicism, which was banned and persecuted in Korea until the end of the […]
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Korea Post will issue two stamps on 12 August, 2022 in what appears to be a new series called ‘Foreign Advocates of Korean Independence’. The date of issue is close to ‘Liberation Day’ (해방의 날, Haebang-ŭi nal), 15 August, the date in 1945 when Japan surrendered, thus both ending the Second World War and her […]
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On 14 April, 2022, Korea Post issued a set of 8 stamps as part of its series Han’gug-ŭi yet kŏnch’uk (한국의 옛 건축, Korean Historic Architecture). There were also two sheets issued and a special cancellation. Four churches are commemorated – two Roman Catholic and two Anglican. Shown on the stamps of the churches are […]
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The three envelopes described below are small but important pieces of information about three key Presbyterian missionary families in Korea – the McCunes, the Hunts, and the Blairs. All of these families were involved in education, and became embroiled in the politics of colonial Korea under the Japanese. In particular, they and other missionaries were […]
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The use of Christmas Seals in Korea began with the work of the Methodist medical missionaries Dr. Sherwood Hall (Korean name Ha Rak 賀樂, 1893-1991) and his wife Dr. Marian Bottomley Hall (1896-1991) who were based in the city of Haeju (海州) in South Hwanghae Province (黃海道), now in North Korea.
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In an issue of the KSS Newsletter, there was a photocopy of part of the membership list of the Korea Philatelic Society. It is interesting to note that two non-Koreans are listed as members, both missionaries. One is KSS member Dr. Lyman Hale (1922 – 2019), a physician at Severance Hospital, Seoul and a member […]
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On Kobay, the Korean version of Ebay, mission history-related philatelic items are often available. Here is one of many of these items – a postcard sent within Great Britain from Grimsby to Skidbrooke on 19 February 1913. Both of these places are coastal towns in north east Lincolnshire. Grimsby is a major fishing port, whereas […]
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