Lars Kim recently traveled to the Newberry Library in Chicago, where she was surprised to find a small collection of movable metal and wooden type from the Joseon era. Shortly thereafter, she worked with staff at both the Newberry and the Library of Congress to investigate the provenance of their Korean type collections; she discovered that both came from the private collection of James Scarth Gale, a Canadian scholar-missionary who served in Korea from 1888-1927. Gale held a deep love for early Korean typography and was instrumental in establishing the modern field of Korean Studies; he also acquired many rare Korean works for the Library of Congress. The Korean type collection came to the Newberry Library in 1940 when it was purchased from Dr. Esson M. Gale, the nephew of James Scarth Gale. This exciting discovery points to the greater need to both identify and trace the origins of overseas Korean cultural collections.
