[KS] Terry Bennett's Photo Collection

[Brother Anthony]

Frank, thanks for the interesting question. One direction in which to reflect about the Korean lack of interest in preserving the past for its own sake might be to reflect on the relative absence of interest in accumulating private collections of beautiful objects or books during the Joseon period. Some yangban (very few) had tea-rooms furnished with Chinese furniture, antiques and objets d'art, and Dasan had a very large library with him in Gangjin, but what happened to such things after they died? There is such a contrast with Japan, where still today vast quantities of Korean (and Japanese!) treasures lie hidden in private collections carefully transmitted through the generations. The royal palaces were an exception and of course the Yi Family Museum is one of the sources of the National Museum's collection. But what became of the furnishings and precious objects decorating Gyeongbok-gung after it was abandoned at the murder of the Queen?  (A very Good Question!) I would also want to refer to Hyung Il Pai's work, such as her "Heritage Management in Korea and Japan: The Politics of Antiquity and Identity." The systematic recording of Korean art history owes so much to Sekino Tadashi and other Japanese experts.

But written archives, civic records? Each Yangban family certainly treasured and transmitted the writings of noted scholars of that clan and there is now in Andong a major library / museum holding the woodblocks and prints that were mostly completely abandoned by the families themselves. Like family records (hojeok), again exposed to neglect as families moved away to Seoul or perished. There is no place designed to collect and hold them.

I recall someone who wanted to do research on the evolution of Protestant hymnbooks so they went to the library of the main Presbyterian seminary, asking to see their collection of hymnbooks from past decades, only to be told that they had been thrown away because nobody was using them any more. Many university libraries throw away (or offer to students) scholarly books that have not been borrowed by the undergraduates in the past 2-3 years, not understanding that a scholar might need such books 20 years later . . . There is, of course, the presidential archive, but there are rumors of much potentially compromising material that has not been deposited. In a quite different direction, scholarship on the popular literature written and read in later Joseon is hamstrung by the great lack of original materials. People just did not bother to keep such things and there were no institutions (libraries) to do it. Likewise for the movies made in colonial Chosen. Nearly 4,000 volumes of ancient (Joseon era) Korean books mostly in Classical Chinese were discovered in the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley, not long ago, they were all brought there after the war from Japan, where private collectors reduced to poverty were obliged to sell their collections . . .
Br Anthony



--- Original Message ---
>From    : "Frank Hoffmann"<hoffmann at koreanstudies.com>
To      : "Korean Studies Discussion List"<koreanstudies at koreanstudies.com>
Date    : 2020/07/14 Tuesday PM 3:16:30
Subject : Re: [KS] Terry Bennett's Photo Collection

Just to say thanks for the insights, Brother Anthony.
Quite interesting! The harsh discrepancy between the propagated 
emphasis on traditional culture, especially court culture, and the fast 
and rigorous disassembling of anything left of traditional Korean 
culture (e.g. having turning Seoul into what looks like some Amazon 
warehouse space) was long something very visible to many. The 
disinterest in preservation as such, on the other hand, is something 
that only shows when put in international perspective. Over the years I 
have not seen much of an awareness on this issue in Korea. My immediate 
add-on question after reading your note below is: is this the result of 
rapid modernization under mostly authoritarian rule and the creation of 
a system of value priorities that characterize the inner workings of 
such a system itself, or does it have much older roots that are 
possibly explained by Korea having been a mostly agrarian, rural 
society? 

Best,
Frank


On Tue, 14 Jul 2020 11:40:49 +0900 (KST), Brother Anthony wrote:
> Part of the problem is the size of the collection, which TB wishes to 
> sell complete. This takes us into the several millions of dollars 
> which is hardly feasible in today's world. As for his collection 
> related to Indochina, which is so much larger and much more complex, 
> from what I hear, one dares not even think of what a possible price 
> might be or who might pay it. For Korea, part of the difficulty is 
> the amost complete lack of national awareness or interest when it 
> comes to archiving materials of any kind, anywhere. I have not heard 
> that there is a Korean National Archive which would be the obvious 
> place for such a collection. I was quite surprised when recently the 
> pack of 94 photographic negatives by (?) Carlo Rossetti found a buyer 
> in Korea (I do not know who) at a high price at K Auction after 
> failing to find a buyer ar auctions in Europe, etc. If TB wishes to 
> sell, he would be well advised to take the same route (auction in 
> Korea, probably preceded by an exhibition) but I doubt if he could 
> sell the complete collection as such. It is bound to have materials 
> with varying levels of rarity / interest / value. There are other 
> considerable collections of archival material related to Korea I know 
> of that face the same problem, for even should someone wish to make a 
> donation, I do not really see any institution in Korea qualified and 
> adapted to receive fragile materials such as photos, maps, account 
> books, personal letters, transcribed interviews, diaries . . . . with 
> no immediate purpose other than long-term preservation. 
> 
> The other side of the coin is the considerable amount of older 
> printed material held in certain university libraries in Seoul to 
> which absolutely noobody seems able to gain access. It is only quite 
> recently that Korean academics seem to have realized the interest of 
> the older photographic record. The use made by Korean scholars from 
> Sungyungwan of the photographic materials in the Griffis archive at 
> Rutgers in preparing last year's massive volume 'Photographs of Korea 
> in the William Elliot Griffis Collection' marks a new departure.
> 
> Brother Anthony
> President, RAS Korea
> 
> 

_______________________________
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com