The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem has a well-established collection of works of art that reflect Korea and Korean life during the late Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) into the early 20th century, a period when Korea was first opening its door to the West. PEM’s collection can now be explored in the new Yu Kil-Chun Korean Art Gallery, which opens on 17 May, showing works from the museum’s Korean textile, porcelain, painting, and folk collection. Asian Art Newspaper takes this opportunity to explore Korean Art in American collections.
The early Korean collection was primarily formed by Edward Sylvester Morse, director of the Peabody Academy of Science (a predecessor organisation to PEM) from 1880 to 1914, who proactively pursued Korean acquisitions during his tenure. Morse met Paul G von Möllendorff, a diplomat and advisor to King Gojong, and requested that he acquire Korean objects on the museum’s behalf.
That same year, the young Korean scholar Yu Kil-Chun (1856-1914) was introduced to Morse as he lived and studied in Salem and nearby Byfield until 1885. During his stay, Yu donated his clothing and other personal belongings to Morse. Yu Kil-Chun was a reformist scholar and politician, who had gone to the US as a member of the first Korean delegation. As well as Yu, other early travellers between the US and Korea also donated many meaningful and foundational works to the museum’s collection. Yu’s donations, along with Morse’s first purchase from Möllendorff, formed the foundation of PEM’s Korean collection. Other Korean works collected by Morse are also housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
One of the most important groups of works Morse acquired for PEM was a set of eight Korean musical instruments that were exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Another early collector was Steward Culin (1858-1929), a curator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, who purchased items, especially relating to Korean folk art, during his trip to the country in 1913; however, these objects were not on display at the museum until the 1970s. The first museum to show Korean objects to the American public was the Honolulu Academy of Arts, established by the art collector Anne Rice Cooke (1853-1934), who founded the museum in 1922 (opened to the public in 1927).
Korean Art in American Collections
Notably, other American collectors of the period include Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), who was interested in Korean ceramics and made his first purchase of Korean ceramics in 1896, 14 years after the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between Korea and the US. By 1919, Freer had acquired 471 Korean works of art from the Goryeo (918-1392) and Joseon dynasties (1392-1910) with most of his purchases being bought through Japanese dealers such as Yamanaka and Company. These objects were shown to the public when the Freer Gallery of Art opened in Washington DC in 1923.
These early works, often rare and one of a kind, show how people lived and interacted with each other in Korea during the Joseon period, as well as exemplify their thoughts, values, and aspirations.
PEM’s Korean collection continued to grow in the early 20th century. Some of its most significant acquisitions from this early period include a late Joseon hwarot (bridal robe) and an early 19th-century folding screen, Welcoming Banquet of the Governor of Pyeongan. Welcoming Banquet of the Governor of Pyeongan, which depicts eight spectacular moments from lavish official celebrations. In the year 1826, the governor of Pyeongan Province (now part of North Korea) hosted a grand banquet along the Taedong River to honour a new cohort of successful provincial examination candidates.
This resplendent event unfolded in a dazzling series of spectacles, from citywide processions and jubilant festivities to night-time boat rides. Every moment was then meticulously captured in an eight-panel folding screen, with each panel depicting a different scene of the celebration in chronological order. Notably, the presence of gold embellishments on musical instruments and ceremonial flags suggests that the piece was a commissioned work, likely created for a high-ranking government official during the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910).
Conservation of Korean Art at Peabody Essex Museum
This set of paintings, originally made as one magnificent folding screen, came to PEM in 1927 as eight separate panels and has been recently conserved at the Leeum Museum of Art Conservation Research Laboratory, supported by the Samsung Foundation of Culture, which undertook an extensive restoration, consulting historical records and even satellite imagery of Pyongyang to ensure accuracy. Until its conservation, the original folding screen had lost its original mounting, ending up as eight separate panels with no obvious way to determine their exact sequence, as they lacked inscriptions or identifying marks. The paintings themselves bore more than 10,000 holes from insect damage, while their surfaces had suffered from deep creases, cracks, and contamination.
The second object sent to Korea for conservation was the hwarot, the traditional wedding robe worn by elite women during the Joseon era. By the late 19th century, no longer reserved for royalty and aristocrats, the garment had become common among ordinary brides. Today, only about 50 examples of this robe survive worldwide. During its restoration at Dankook University’s Seok Juseon Memorial Museum, conservators discovered that patches of scrap hanji (traditional Korean paper) had been previously applied to mend its sleeves. Some of these fragments contained a chusugi (autumn harvest record), while others were even identified as nakbokji, discarded answer sheets from unsuccessful candidates in the Joseon dynasty’s civil service examinations, also known as gwageo.
The new gallery at PEM, widening the base of Korean art in American collections, aims to explore how Korean artists navigated global waves of change and expressed their struggles and aspirations through resourcefulness and innovation. Resilience and creativity have been integral to Korea throughout its history, and these values continue to shape the global influence of Korean culture today.
PEM’s collection also emphasises works that reflect the prominence of Korean women artists and artisans in textiles, basketry, and papier-mâché objects. It continues to grow and diversify thanks to important acquisitions, including a fine mid-Joseon mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquerware, a nectar ritual painting from 1744 (a good example of a late Joseon religious painting), and an impressive 19th-century folding screen depicting a Banquet of Queen Mother of the West.
Contemporary art is not neglected, with the recent acquisition of four works by Nam June Paik (1932-2006), including the 2001 multimedia work Ceramic Vessel and Mirror from 1998. The contemporary Korean art show that opens at the same time as the new gallery is Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams, on view until 25 January 2026. In this exhibition, the photographer invites you to look closer at your neighbours – the strangers you might pass in an apartment elevator or a busy street – and imagine their dreams. Jung uses the camera to show people as they are, but also as they wish to be seen.
Yu Kil-Chun Gallery of Korean Art and Culture opens on 17 May, 2025, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, pem.org
