[KS] Percival Lowell

Robert N robertneff103 at gmail.com
Tue Apr 7 10:23:10 EDT 2015


Frank Hoffman,

As to the date of Lowell's stay in Korea you are correct - I missed the
wrong dates.

As to the number of Westerners living in Korea - again, I agree with you
that there were a large number of them associated with the customs
department but they were mainly outside of Seoul.  Many of the Germans (as
well as others) were released after Mollendorff's fall from grace.  Prof.
Wayne Patterson's book discusses Hart's efforts to replace much of the
staff.

As for the names - I will defer to your knowledge of the European spellings.

As for Rosenbaum - there were two of them in Korea at the same time.  Were
they related?  I don't know.  One worked in Wonsan and the other went into
business - glass and matchmaking.  I cover the latter one pretty
extensively in "Korea Through Western Eyes."

Robert Neff

On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 4:54 PM, Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann at koreanstudies.com>
wrote:

> A clarification question:
>
> Robert Neff's 'disagreement' stirred me up.
> Since I am more familiar with Lowell Library than Lowell himself, let
> me ask you for clarification: Professor Pai stated in her mail that
> Lowell visited Korea in 1882-83. Isn't that just a typo? I think it
> must be 1883-84. Please see pages pages v of Lowell's _Chöson_ book, as
> well as the footnote on page 165. Lowell refers to August 1883 -- and
> he seems to have then stayed for two months, and to January 1884. That
> "winter stay" was the winter 1883-84: "middle of December" (1883) ...
> "I spent the winter".
>
> Have cleared this up, we then do not talk anymore about the year 1882,
> a year were indeed very few Westerners resided in Korea! Thus far I
> agree with Robert Neff's disagreement. But I disagree to disagree when
> it comes to 1883, a time when a plenty of foreigners had begun to work
> in live in Korea. Please see again H.-A. Kneider's list -- as an
> EXAMPLE for the germans alone (of course, there also were French and
> Americans, possible others):
>
> http://maincc.hufs.ac.kr/~kneider/Kodienst.htm:
>
> - from spring 1883: H. Classen -- for several years in Korea, first
> working for the customs office, then for the German consulate
>
> - from spring 1883: H.G. Arnous -- for any years in Korea, working for
> various customs offices in Pusan and elsewhere; published a book (1893)
> of Korean fairytales, legends, and customs
>
> - from spring 1883:  H.W. Laucht -- works for the Korean customs office
> in Pusan
>
> - from spring 1883:  F.H. Mörsel -- works for the Korean customs
> office, and in later years as harbormaster in Chemulp'o
>
> - from spring 1883:  F. Schulze -- works as harbormaster in Chemulp'o
>
>
> PS:
> QUOTE:  "I fully agree that the spelling of names can be confusing."
> Well, name variations are not confusing, once we know what period we
> talk about. People just did not have that same kind of barcode
> mentality of legality and correctness they have these days.
>
> PS 2:
> QUOTE:  "Rosenbaum appears to have been Seigmond Rosenbaum and not
> Joseph/f."
> You must mean "Siegmund Rosenbaum (not SEIgmOnd). And since Rosenbaum
> is a German Jewish name, likely also "Sigmund" as a variation (as in
> Sigmund Freud). It is still possible that Joseph was a later official
> name -- a typical case would be, and there are plenty such cases around
> that time! -- that this person converted to protestantism, or if in
> Austria then maybe Catholicism, and was thus given an additional
> Christian first name. You can find out by searching the Ellis Island
> Archive for his immigration records.
>
>
> Best,
> Frank
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------
> Frank Hoffmann
> http://koreanstudies.com
>
>
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