As a boy, I often looked forward to wandering the snow-covered streets of my city to admire the Christmas decorations. Houses were lit up with countless lights - some were obviously color-schemed while others were haphazard assortments of whatever colors could be found - snowmen (when there was enough snow) stood silent guard in the front yards and sometimes Santa and his sleigh could be seen on the occasional rooftop.
“The introduction of kerosene,” according to John Jordan, the British consul in Seoul, “has worked a veritable revolution in village life in [Korea, with almost] every cottage possessing [a] Japanese lamp.”
In the early 1880s, the first “products of Western civilization” that really appealed to Korean consumers were beer, matches and kerosene. During the 19th century, kerosene was the United States number one export item to the Korean Peninsula. In 1885, more than 162,400 gallons (614,750 liters) of American kerosene arrived in Jemulpo (modern Incheon).
On the beautiful autumn morning of Nov. 11, 1893, the foreign community in Seoul witnessed the royal family s ceremonial visit to a memorial site located in front of the American Legation (now the ambassador s residence).
Farmers have always played a vital role in society, but in the late 19th century, they were often overlooked by the pens of visiting Western writers and only occasionally captured in their photographs. While many of these images are unflattering, they are - through their relative simplicity - beautiful and provide a rather fleeting glimpse of life outside of the capital and the main open ports of Jemulpo (modern Incheon), Fusan (modern Busan) and Wonsan.