Missionary Correspondence from Wŏnsan, 1934
The cover discussed in the article is from Mrs. C. N. Weems, a Methodist missionary in Wŏnsan, Korea in 1934.
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Category: Old Korea
Busan-Shimonoseki Sea Post Cancellations
The images below form an excerpt from my exhibit titled “Circular Datestamps at Japanese Offices in Korea (1876-1945),” which will be presented at NAPEX 2023 in McLean, Virginia on June 2-4, 2023.
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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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The Korea 1900 Plum Blossom Essays Revisited
The topic of the Plum Blossom Essay was last seen on the Korea Stamp Society webpage back on August 7, 2019 in an article by Gary McLean.
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A Postcard used in 1945, the last year of Japanese occupation of Korea
Forward Note by Bob Finder: The following article by one of our members of the Korea Stamp Society (KSS) shows one of the key values of being a member of the KSS; that value is the gaining of new information about Korean philately from other members. With the collaboration of six different members of the […]
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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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Gwendoline Post Office and it’s Unique Blue Cancellation
Gwendoline (은산-殷山) Post office was a simple postal branch which handled only postal matters of reception. Following are a few points regarding the office:
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Obtaining one more 1905 Postal Envelope of the Missionary Mr. H. G. Underwood!
This year I was lucky enough to have bid on an auction and won this 1905 postal envelope of Missionary Horace Grant Underwood. The sender’s address is “FROM: H. G. UNDERWOOD,SEOUL, KOREA.”, receiver address is typed as “Tiffin Stamp Co, 160 N St. Tiffin Ohio, USA”. The envelope was franked with a 10 cent Eagle […]
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Japanese era “directional cachets” used on New Ilhan covers leading the way to the USA
When I was writing my earlier article on New Ilhan (see KP Vol. 57 No. 1), I didn’t even realize I had more envelopes from the New Ilhan company. When I did realize, I looked around for more envelopes from New Ilhan and discovered several other items. All these envelopes must have come from the […]
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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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Early Korean fake stamps (1884 – 1895 series)
Forgeries have always been a major problem for philatelists. This is perhaps even more true for early Korean materials: the simple fact that early Korean stamps weren’t much collected before the First World War made it quite easy for stamp forgers, especially from Japan, to create forgeries which could fool collectors. Even though often very […]
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Japanese Offices in Korea Double-Circle Date Stamps (1876-1888)
This is a collection of date stamps used in Japanese Offices in Korea from 1876 to 1888. During this period the first type of CDS, “double-circle date stamps”, was used at Busan (or “Fusan” in Japanese), Wonsan (or “Gensan”), and Incheon (or “Ninsen”). The Japanese-language version of this exhibit was shown at JAPEX 2019 and […]
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Missionary Mr. Underwood
Mr. Horace Grant Underwood (July 19, 1859 – Oct. 12, 1916) was the first Presbyterian missionary for the Korean mission from the Presbyterian church U. S. A.. In Korea he is well known as just “Missionary Underwood”, and his Korean name is “Won Doo-Woo” (원 두우; 元 杜尤). Mr. Underwood was born July 19, 1859, […]
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Story of Baron G. de Gunzburg – Russian Government Official in Chosen
(On the relationship Between Chosŏn and Russia) On October 8, 1895, Queen Myung-Sung was assassinated by the Japanese force. King Go-Jong, who was also confined at the palace Kyung-Bok, fearing for his life, wanted to escape. On November 28, 1895, the King’s first try to flee to the legation of the United States failed because […]
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The Story of Monsieur Charles Aleveque
Charles Aleveque (known in Korea as An Ryebaek, -晏禮百) made and distributed the first photographic postcards in Korea, published a French-Korean dictionary, and represented the Korean Government at the 1900 Paris Exposition. As a representative for a French trading company, he worked for trade between Korea and France, importing modern materials for the government of […]
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Is this a Cover from Dr. New-Ilhan, One of the Co-Founders of La Choy?
Recently when I was searching on the net for Japanese Occupation of Korea covers, I found a cover that was very interesting to me. I did a search for the sender’s name and discovered that this might be a cover with that contained a letter from New-Ilhan. His original name was Ilhyeong New.
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The Story of Monsieur Tremoulet
Following the opening of Korea’s ports to international commerce in the 1880s, the Government recognized the importance of developing modern methods of mining. On September 4, 1900, the ‘Governmental Mining School’ to promote industrial education was established. The officials of the school were to be the principal, a superintendent, four trainers, an assistant trainer, and […]
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Postal stationery used in Northern Korea (II): Japanese 5 sen Nanko card 1945-1947
Preface: This series of articles derive from discussions among several KSS member collectors. Some of them are interested in collecting Korean (and Japanese) philatelic items but feel confused in distinguishing different surcharges of early Korean postal stationeries since they cannot read Hanja and Hangul. See here for part I about the usage of these cards […]
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Japan Playing with Korea – Follow Up
We are very fortunate, as it turns out, that one of our Board members, Florian Eichhorn, has previously done quite a bit of research on the postcard, showing a Japanese woman tossing Korean stamps into the air, that was briefly discussed on the KSS website. It was not an anti-Japanese propaganda item, as I had […]
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Beautiful Korean Silk/Wood Christmas Card from the late 1920’s
Recently I was attracted to a “wood” Korean Christmas Card mailed from Korea to Florida, USA in the late 1920’s. I had never seen one like this before and bought it. When I received it, I was pleasantly surprised how beautiful it was, when I actually saw the card itself. The wooden card has a […]
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