Celebrating Thirty Years of East Asian Collections

KOREAN STUDENT RESEARCH

This page contains student research and related materials about Korea. First compare two Duke student publications from 1934 and 2019; these works highlight research and demonstrate some significant changes in historical theory over time. The third work by Marion Boyd Stokes, Jr., born to missionaries in Korea, is followed by a biographical work on Marion's father written by another member of the family. 

Harrison, Charles W. 1934. Korea and its diplomatic relations with the United States. University Archives, Duke University.

This is the first paper written about Korea at Duke University. This thesis examines the diplomatic relations of the United States and Korea from 1866, when the first American ship, the Surprise, were shipwrecked on Korean shores, until 1910 when Korea ceased to exist as an independent nation.

The author was born and reared in Korea as a child of missionaries, William Butler Harrison & Margaret Jane Edmunds, important figures in the history of Korean missionaries. Rev. William Butler Harrison (하위렴 in Korean name) devoted his life on medical missionary work and education from 1896 through 1928 in Korea. Margaret Jane Edmunds founded Korea’s first nursing school called as the Pogunyogwan Training School for Nurses in 1903, which is now the division of nursing science at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. The author of this thesis, Charles Harrison, was born in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province in 1911, and later participated as a marine officer during the Korean War.

Ko, Alan. 2019. Pathogens from the Pulpit: Missionary Perceptions of Disease in Colonial Korea (1910-1940). Honors thesis, Duke University. 
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18331
This undergraduate honors thesis examines how Western missionaries in colonial Korea (1910-1945) perceived disease among the Korean populace. This paper examines the trajectory of the Spanish flu (also known as the 1918 influenza pandemic) in Korea, partly through scarce accounts authored by missionaries at the time. In dissecting the different perceptions of disease that existed in colonial Korea through the lens of the Western missionary establishment, this thesis considers more fundamentally, how public health efforts remain correlated with certain preconceived cultural and social factors. During this challenging period due to COVID-19, it is notable that more than half of South Korea’s coronavirus cases are linked to the church members who attended services.

Stokes, Marion Boyd. [Edited and rewritten by J. Lem Stokes, II, 1998.]. Autobiography of Marion Boyd Stokes, D.D. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Rev. Marion B. Stokes, member of a distinguished Methodist family in North and South Carolina, served as an evangelistic and educational missionary to Korea from 1907 until 1940. His Korean name is 도마련. Stokes' evangelism was the beginning of a nationwide campaign for the "Million Souls for Christ" with the goal of reaching 1 million believers in Korean Christianity from September 1909 to March 1911. He was also interested in mission-related publications; he published monthly Christian magazines called “Segwang” in January 1920, “Sunday School Teachers” in 1929, and “Seonghwa” in January 1935. He left remarkable achievements in Korean missionary work until he returned to the United States by Japanese deportation in 1940. During the Korean War, he served as a Korean translator by the US military.

With his wife they had four sons, all who became prominent Ministers of the United Methodist Church. J. Lem Stokes II, who edited and rewritten this Autobiography, was born as the eldest son in Songdo, Korea (currently in North Korea). He graduated from Seoul Foreign School, Asbury College, and Duke University Divinity School with a master's in divinity and Yale University with a doctorate. He was a former pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church in Rock Hill, was president of Pfeiffer College in Misenheimer, N.C., and was associate vice president of the University of North Carolina. Marion "Mack" Boyd Stokes was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1972. He was born in Wonsan (currently in North Korea) as a third son. He is a graduate of Asbury College (A.B. degree), Duke Divinity School (B.D. degree, 1935), and Boston University (Ph.D. degree). He was a professor of systematic theology and Christian doctrine at Candler School of Theology at Emory University from 1941 until 1972. He wrote the thesis on “Observations of Korean native religion and social practice” in 1935, which is available at Duke University Archives. Charles D. Stokes, the youngest son, succeeded his father as a Korean missionary throughout his life. His Korean name is 도익서. He established Methodist Theological University in Daejeon (currently called as Mokwon University) with the purpose of nurturing rural students. During the Korean War, he worked on transporting refugees and relief projects, especially for war orphans. After his death, the Korean Government awarded the National Merit.

Stokes, Marion Boyd, Jr. 1935. Observations of Korean native religion and social practice. University Archives, Duke University.

Marion "Mack" Boyd Stokes was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1972. He was born in Wonsan (currently in North Korea) as a third son to the late Marion B. Stokes and Pauline Davis Stokes, who served as an evangelistic and educational missionary to Korea from 1907 until 1940. He is a graduate of Asbury College (A.B. degree), Duke Divinity School (B.D. degree, 1935), and Boston University (Ph.D. degree). He was a professor of systematic theology and Christian doctrine at Candler School of Theology at Emory University from 1941 until 1972. He wrote this thesis on “Observations of Korean native religion and social practice” in 1935, which is available at Duke University Archives. All three of his brothers also became Methodist clergy.

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