*International Symposium Highlights the Recent Discovery of *

*a Korean National Treasure in UW-Milwaukee’s Library Collection*

/Rare 19-century map is the centerpiece of a conference timed with /

/“Korea Day” cultural activities at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee/

MILWAUKEE, WIS. (November 2009) – A rare 1861 map designated as a
National Treasure in Korea will be the focus of an international
academic conference on November 20^th at UW-Milwaukee’s American
Geographical Society Library. Distinguished scholars from Korea and the
US will give presentations about the /Daedong yeojido/ (“Territorial Map
of the Great East”), which was recently identified in the AGS Library
collection after more than a century in obscurity.

The all-day conference begins at 9:30 A.M. with lectures by Dr. Kihuk
Kim (Pusan National University and president of the Association of Old
Korean Map Studies in Korea); Dr. Kibong Lee (Rare Book Section,
National Library of Korea); and Drs. Suk-Soo Kim and Halla Kim
(University of Nebraska at Omaha).

The afternoon session features a special lecture at 1:30 P.M. by Dr.
Gari Ledyard (King Sejong Professor Emeritus of Korean Studies at
Columbia University).

During the conference, the /Daedong yeojido/ will be on display along
with other archival Korean maps and photographs.

*/Background and significance of the Daedong yeojido /*

In December 2008, researchers from the Korean Consulate in Chicago
visited the UWM Libraries' AGS Library, accompanied by UWM School of
Information Studies faculty member Wooseob Jeong. The researchers
quickly recognized that one of the maps in the collection was the
/Daedong yeojido/, a map designated a National Treasure in Korea.

Very few complete copies of the /Daedong yeojido/ survive. In the United
States, only UWM’s AGS Library and the University of California-Berkeley
own the 1861 version.

The /Daedong yeojido/ was produced by the great Korean geographer Kim
Jeongho. The map is a single map on twenty-two folded sheets and when
displayed open, measures nearly thirteen feet wide and twenty feet in
length.

At a scale of about 1:162,000, the map is a wood-block print that
includes two inset maps of Seoul, texts, diagrams, and a hand-drawn
index sheet.

It is believed Kim walked the length and breadth of Korea several times
gathering data for the /Daedong yeojido/. In the 1860s, Korea was in a
state of alarm over a potential Western invasion, and the high level of
detail and the extensive publication costs of Kim's map suggest it was
made in preparation for war.

Kim was jailed in 1864, some scholars speculate, because a new
government thought he had compromised national security through the
release of this detailed and accurate map.

The map is part of a collection of Korea-related materials – including
several maps, an atlas, and forty-three photographs of Korea -- which
had been originally purchased by the American Geographical Society of
New York in 1895 from the father of American diplomat George C. Foulk.

In 1883, Foulk served as a translator for Korean delegates who visited
the United States as part of the first recorded Korean diplomatic visit
to the West. Foulk accompanied the mission back to Korea as a U.S. Naval
attaché and undertook a 900-mile journey of the country by sedan chair
in September and October 1884, during which time he kept a detailed
journal, took photographs, and may have used the /Daedong yeojido/.

*/Korea Day at UWM/*

The conference is being held in conjunction with “Korea Day,” a cultural
celebration at UWM. In addition to the conference, a lunch program
featuring traditional Korean cultural activities will be held in Greene
Hall on the UWM campus at 12:00-1:30pm on November 20.

The Korea Day conference and activities are sponsored by the UWM School
of Information Studies (SOIS), UWM Libraries, American Geographical
Society Library, Korean American University Professors Association
(KAUPA), Map Society of Wisconsin, UWM Center for International
Education (CIE), the Korean-American Association of Milwaukee, the
Korean Language and Culture School of Milwaukee, and the Consulate
General of the Republic of Korea in Chicago.

*/Location and Parking/*

The conference will be held at the American Geographical Society (AGS)
Library, which is located on the 3rd floor of the Golda Meir Library on
the UWM campus. Parking is available at the Klotsche Center Pavilion
garage, which is located at 3409 North Downer Avenue, near East Newport
Avenue.

All events are free and open to the public.

###

For more information: http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/AGSL/korean_maps.cfm

Contact:

Angie Cope, Senior Academic Librarian, AGS Library, UW-Milwaukee
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(414) 229-6282

Wooseob Jeong, Associate Professor, School of Information Studies,
UW-Milwaukee

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(414) 229-6167