Missionary Correspondence from Kwangju, 1926
This cover is from M L Swinehart a missionary in Kwangju to an address in Virginia, USA dated to 1926.
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Author: James H. Grayson
An Excellent Example of a Postally Used South Korean Postcard — Just Before the start of the Korean War
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 Post Card from Korea: A Poignant Relic from Colonial Korea
(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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Stamps, Nationalism and Political Transitions
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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Commemorating a Martyred Priest
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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Foreign Advocates for Korean Independence
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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Four Historic Churches
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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Missionary Correspondence in Colonial Korea: McCune – Hunt Letters
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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Christmas Seals from the Japanese Colonial Era
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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Missionary stamp collectors on 1964 KPS membership list
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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1913 SPG Postcard showing missionary residence
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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Christian Literature Society correspondence illustrates different surface mail cachets
A series of covers, recently offered for sale on Ebay, show another interesting piece of Korean missionary history. The Christian Literature Society of Korea (대한 기독교 서회) was and is a major publisher and bookseller in Korea, and dates back to the earliest years of Protestant Christian missions. It is an ecumenical organisation as is […]
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1963 cover from important Methodist medical missionary educator
This envelope is particularly interesting from a postal history point of view. The writer, Dr. Roberta G. Rice, was writing to Dr. Charles Mayo the head of the renowned Mayo Clinic, and his wife in a personal capacity. Dr. Rice was a member of the (American) Methodist Mission who had been appointed after the Korean […]
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The Semiotics of the First Korean Issues
As a philatelist, my principal interest has been in the semiotics of the stamps, the meaning of their design. The first stamps issued by a national government or stamp issuing authority are particularly intriguing. This is a government’s first opportunity to present itself graphically to the world. What do they put on their very first […]
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Australian missionary postal history shows early links with Korea
Abacus Auctions of Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia in its auctions for 30 November to 1 December, 2019 displayed three Korean postcards for sale, two of which are pictoral cards. The pictoral postcards are of a ‘yŏt’ (Korean confection) seller and a view of a city gate in Sŏul, possibly the Great North Gate. The text […]
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Fusan Customs cover Mrs. Appenzeller
John Bull Stamp Auctions, Ltd. from Hong Kong has a cover in its “332nd Auction” (5 – 8 December 2019) which was sent in April 1891 from Mrs. Hunt in Fusan (Busan) to Mrs. Appenzeller in Seoul. The cover has a starting price of 1.000.000 HKD, which is approx. 127.500 US dollars or 115.000 EUR.
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Korean New Year Greeting Cards
Every year since 1957, the Republic of Korea Post Office has issued New Year greeting cards, and since 1975 New Year envelopes, although these special envelopes have not been issued every year. In 1974, as a ‘one-off’, Korea Post issued a special New Year letter sheet. These New Year greetings stationery are issued for the […]
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Military Post in Korea in 1952
The other day Ivo Spanjersberg shared scans of the front and back of a letter envelope which was posted from Korea to the United States at the end of 1952. Ivo asked me why a non-military person could use military post? I didn’t have an answer to this and referred the question to my colleague […]
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What are we collecting? A report on the Members’ Survey
One of my tasks as Speciality Editor for the Society is to ask old and new members what their collecting interests are. This is the first report I’ve made public and I thought that many of our members would want to know what fellows members said.
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UK Forces in Korea, BFPO 376 in Kure and a ship beginning with R?
A friend of mine in the Sheffield Philatelic Society, Ian Potter, has given me an envelope which he thought might of interest to me. It is attached below. The envelope, with no message inside, is clearly from someone who was associated with ‘UK Forces in Korea’ and is addressed to a ‘V D K Craddock’ […]
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