Korea

Filmed during the AMNH Andrews Korean Whaling Expedition, 1912. Roy Chapman Andrews, assistant curator in the Department of Mammalogy and Ornithology, went to Korea in 1912 to collect various species of whales. Although he took a lot of motion picture footage, this little film is all that remains. Shown at first are Keijo (now Seoul), then under Japanese rule and called Chosen, and its surrounding hills, the South Gate (for which the city was named), trolleys, and bullock carts. Koreans in garments of flowing white grass cloth, the men wearing tall hats made of horsehair or finely split bamboo, walk by. Women line the waterways beating the white clothing on rocks to launder it. In a market bustling with vendors selling lacquer ware and foodstuffs, men, carrying gackis (large wishbone-shaped racks) on their backs, transport produce to and from the market; pack ponies and humans bear heavy burdens of pine tops that are used as fuel. The pole and thatch dwellings, as well as fine stone Korean architecture, are seen in this film, as are cameos of the inhabitants of Seoul. This film was clearly deteriorating when it was transferred to safety-base stock. In spite of its poor quality, this is a most valuable record of Seoul in 1912.