Project leaders and student volunteers ready for a scanning session: “let’s make history together.” Photo courtesy of Korean American Historical Society.
An NEH grant enabled the Korean American Historical Society (KAHS) to host two digitization events in the Seattle area. Participants shared artifacts, photos, and family documents that tell stories of migration across generations. They received digital copies of their items and information and materials to better care for them. The digital archive amassed through these events will be preserved by the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience and used to create much-needed curriculum on Korean-American history and culture.
“We don’t see ourselves in the textbooks. We now have enough history materials and artifacts to be able to teach our students about our own history.”
–Julie Kang, Seattle University College of Education
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Fragile antique paper doll brought in by a participant. Project facilitators carefully digitized the item and provided instructions on how to best preserve and protect it. Photo courtesy of Korean American Historical Society.
Digitization events were held in Shoreline and Federal Way, suburbs where the substantial Korean-American community of the Pacific Northwest is concentrated. Student volunteers conducted in-take interviews, capturing the stories behind each item in Korean and English. Some of the most historically significant contributions came from a woman whose great aunt had served as a caregiver for national hero Ahn Chang Ho, leader of the resistance movement during the Japanese colonial period in the early twentieth century.
KAHS raised awareness about the project through an intensive outreach campaign that yielded new institutional partnerships, expanding the project’s scope. KAHS connected with The Morning Star Cultural Center, an organization staging performances of traditional Korean music and dance, and is now helping them preserve their archives. KAHS brought equipment to a cultural event hosted by a local group of adult adoptees to digitize members’ adoption files and other materials connecting them to their Korean heritage. The project garnered substantial coverage from Korean language press, including newspapers, news sites, and television and radio stations. And it concluded with a community report-back session and expert-led discussion about the history of Asian immigration to the United States at the Wing Luke Museum.
Student volunteers conduct an intake interview, capturing the story behind the item digitized. Photo courtesy of Korean American Historical Society.
Julie Kang of Seattle University College of Education used the material gathered to create new curricula that will fill a conspicuous gap. While there is state support for expanding the teaching of Korean and desire among social studies teachers to include the Korean-American community, the lack of available material has slowed progress. Kang worked with teachers from local Korean-language schools to develop curricula in accordance with state standards and the Common Core that is available through the Wing Luke website.
