The Korea Heritage Service announced on the 9th that it received donations of three woodblock printing plates from the late Joseon Dynasty and Japanese colonial period from American and Korean-American collectors at the Former Korean Legation in Washington, D.C. on the 8th (local time).
The donated artifacts include one plate each from "Cheokam Seonsaeng Munjip" (Collected Works of Master Cheokam), "Songja Daejeon" (Complete Works of Song Siyeol), and "Beonam Jip" (Collected Works of Beonam).
The relics were purchased as souvenirs by Americans working in Korea in the early 1970s and taken to the United States. The case reveals how some woodblock plates that were stolen or lost domestically at the time were disguised as souvenirs and sold to foreigners for export abroad, providing important clues for understanding the state and patterns of cultural heritage outflow in the 1970s.
The "Cheokam Seonsaeng Munjip" plate (carved in 1917) is from the collected works of Kim Do-hwa (1825-1912), who served as a righteous army leader in the Andong region during the Eulmi Righteous Army movement in 1895. Aaron Gordon (1933-2011), an American who worked at the Korea office of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the early 1970s, purchased it from an antique dealer in Korea and brought it to the United States. After his death in 2011, his wife Tamra Gordon kept it until she inquired about donating it to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in 2025, at which point it was transferred to the Foundation's U.S. office for repatriation.
The "Cheokam Seonsaeng Munjip" plates originally numbered around 1,000 pieces. Nineteen of them were collectively inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register as "Confucian Printing Woodblocks in Korea" in 2015. In 2019, with sponsorship from Riot Games, the Foundation purchased one plate at a German auction and donated it to the Korea Studies Advancement Center. This donation adds another plate from the same collection.
The "Songja Daejeon" plate (carved in 1926) compiles the writings and chronological records of Uam Song Si-yeol (1607-1689), a prominent late Joseon Confucian scholar, first published in 1787. Aaron Gordon purchased this plate along with the "Cheokam Seonsaeng Munjip" plate from a Korean antique dealer and gifted it to his sister Alicia Gordon, who resides in West Virginia.
The original "Songja Daejeon" plates were completely destroyed by the Japanese military in 1907 and were re-carved by Song Si-yeol's descendants and Confucian scholars in 1926. Currently, 11,023 re-carved plates are designated as Daejeon Metropolitan City Tangible Cultural Heritage.
The "Beonam Jip" plate (carved in 1824) is from the collected works of Beonam Chae Je-gong (1720-1799), a late Joseon civil official and key figure who led state affairs during the reigns of King Yeongjo and King Jeongjo. It was also purchased from a Korean antique dealer by an American working in Korea in the early 1970s and gifted to the family of Korean-American Kim Eun-hye, who resides in Virginia. Kim readily accepted the Foundation's donation proposal.
Of the original 1,159 "Beonam Jip" plates, only 358 remain. Along with the "Cheokam Seonsaeng Munjip" plates, they were collectively inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register as "Confucian Printing Woodblocks in Korea" in 2015.
Meanwhile, Korea Heritage Service Administrator Heo Min will install a commemorative plaque marking "The Republic of Korea's First Embassy" at the Korean Embassy Consular Office building (2320 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008) at 11:30 a.m. local time on the 9th, together with Ambassador to the United States Kang Kyung-wha.
The current Consular Office building is the historic site where the Korean government established its first embassy in the world in 1949. It served as the foundation for Korea's diplomacy, achieving "recognition of the Republic of Korea government" and "membership in various international organizations." It is also a historic site of "national salvation diplomacy" that contributed significantly to securing UN forces' participation in the Korean War in 1950. The building served as the office of Korean ambassadors from the first Ambassador Chang Myon (1949-1951) through the eighth Ambassador Kim Dong-jo (1967-1973), and remains the longest-serving Korean diplomatic mission building currently in use.
This is the third time the Korea Heritage Service has installed a commemorative plaque on overseas cultural heritage, following the Former Korean Legation in the United States (2021) and the Former Korean Legation in the United Kingdom (2023).