[KS] Percival Lowell

[Frank Hoffmann]

Dear Robert, as stated in the last posting, this was just a summary of 
one of the paragraphs in a German language article by Alexander Kneider 
(reference was given). I did not check any of the names and did not say 
I did, nor did I comment on anything. No claim was made that these 
people were in Korea at the *exact* time Lowell was there -- Professor 
Pai expressed her interest in the first half of the 1880s, and in the 
summary (as in Kneider's article) the years of their stay (or at least 
arrival) are clearly listed. 

As for misspelled names: can you point out which names are misspelled? 
-- I mean, except my own in your message and the wrong title ::)
In the late 19th century, and well into the 20th century, Germans used 
a wide variety of spellings for their names. You can find people who 
sometimes refer to themselves as "Joseph" and at times as "Josef," or 
"Kniffler" could easily become "Cniffler" in some official documents, 
and on and on. That even continues into nationalities (wich were hardly 
understood as related to identities back then, other than at times of 
war). For instance, I just wrote a text on a prominent expressionist 
painter named Emil Nolde, who even national governments did not know 
was German or Danish (he was Danish, by his documents, during the 
second half of his life). Even Möllendorff himself -- Kirk called him 
"Moellendorf" with "oe" instead of ö (o-Umlaut) and just one "f". But 
it does not matter whatsoever! There are also plenty of German language 
publications using all sorts of variations -- and it is VERY well 
possible that Möllendorff himself used variations of his own family 
name. All that only stopped some time in the 1930s or later. (All that, 
of course, also applies to other nationalities, such as the use of 
Hanja variations Koreans used for their names.)


Best,
Frank


On Tue, 7 Apr 2015 12:13:42 +0900, Robert N wrote:
> I have to disagree to some degree with Prof. Hoffman.  With the 
> exception of Gottsche, none of those Germans were here in Korea at 
> the same time as Lowell.  
> 
> As to Allen's list of Corean Maritime Customs - it is incomplete (as 
> he notes) and some of the names were even wrong.  Unfortunately, many 
> subsequent publications copied his list and the errors continued to 
> be replicated.  Prof. Wayne Patterson can attest to some of this.
> 
> I  think that the Lowell project is very important for a number of 
> reasons.  As Prof. Baker noted there are a couple of archives with 
> photographs and I am putting together a book based on these and other 
> early photographs.  There were quite a few Westerners in Seoul - and 
> all of them with very interesting histories and backgrounds that I 
> hope to include.
> 
> I think that as time goes by the ideas that we have of the Western 
> communities in Seoul, Fusan, Masan, Wonsan (Gensan) and Chemulpo will 
> have to change.  There was a lot going on in Korea - with a lot of 
> small business ventures - that never made it into the books published 
> by Allen, Sands, Underwood, Gale or the other missionaries.
> 
> Robert Neff
> 
-----------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com