[RAS Korea] RAS Korea digitizes art historian Jon Carter Covell's 2,000 photos

A cozy pavilion overlooks a body of water, from Jon Carter Covell's collection now being archived. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

By Steven L. Shields

Before there was a "K" anything, Dr. Jon Carter Covell was Korea's biggest "K-fan." Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea has digitized her massive collection of more than 2,000 color slides, taken from the late 1970s to mid-1980s.

So far, the project has been ongoing for almost one full year, thanks to Ms. Pak Ji-young volunteering to do the work by coming in one day a week. The project has required meticulous work since the slides were not adequately labeled nor well-organized. RAS Korea's volunteers will be consulting with several experts to finalize the categorization.

Seoul City Hall in the late 1970s or early 1980s, from Jon Carter Covell's collection now being archived. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

Several more months will be required before the full digitized collection will be available online. However, anyone interested in Korean Buddhist and Shamanist art is welcome to visit the RAS Korea office and see what there is so far.

Professor David Mason, a scholar of Korean Buddhism, inherited the slide collection from Covell's family. A few years ago, he gave the collection to RAS Korea to include in our library and archives.

Jon Etta Hastings Carter Covell (who died in 1997) was an art scholar extraordinaire. After graduating from Oberlin College, the bio of her book, "Korea's Cultural Roots," states that she "was the first Westerner to obtain a doctorate in Oriental art history" at Columbia University. Marrying and raising two children, she later taught art history for 15 years at California State University at Long Beach and the University of California, Riverside Extension, before moving to Honolulu to become a Japanese and Korean art history professor at the University of Hawaii.

A man takes a closeup photograph at a traditional music ceremony, from Jon Carter Covell's collection now being archived. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

Covell published several notable books throughout her career, both on Japanese and Korean art. She was especially interested in Buddhist and Shamanist art forms. Covell is said to have remarked that she "had been lied to" all through her education about Japan's relation to Korea. Coming to Korea later in her career (sometime in the late 1970s), she discovered an entirely new take on what she had been taught in Asian art history.

Perhaps her most influential book was "Korean Impact on Japanese Culture: Japan's Hidden History" (Hollym, 1986). The book made a solid evidentiary case that Japanese culture was a second iteration of and fostered by Korean culture. The art forms are evident, and the timelines confirm who was first and what was second. Covell delved into archaeology, stylistic analysis and Japan's sacred scriptures. She argued that Japan's imperial line did not date to 660 BCE but instead to 369 CE, as evidenced by an iron sword from the Baekje period. The sword had a gold inscription and had been kept inaccessible to the public and scholars alike for centuries. She showed that "Japanese culture" (at least to the 8th century CE) was derived mainly from Korea (during the Baekje period) ― music, landscaping, textiles, ceramics, architecture, sculpture and painting. Covell posited that significant Japanese "national treasures" came directly from Korea or were sponsored by the Korea-descended aristocracy, such as Shotoku Taishi, who brought artists and Buddhist priests to the Japanese islands.

Young people pass through the concrete foundation of a traditional gate, from Jon Carter Covell's collection now being archived. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

Covell was an active member of RAS Korea and spent at least a decade in Korea, traveling to distant and off-the-beaten-trail temples, hermitages and shrines. She wrote for English-language newspapers in Seoul, including The Korea Times, in which she had the column, "Korea's Cultural Roots."

An image of a woman sitting in front of two "jangseung" village totem poles, from Jon Carter Covell's collection now being archived. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

In her 1979 column on RAS Korea, covering four issues of the newspaper, her love for RAS Korea is evident in the glowing words describing how the society was instrumental in her appreciation and understanding of Korea and its rich heritage. She wrote, "To me, the RAS…present[s] a positive opportunity to contact bits and pieces of 'Korea's cultural heritage….' Meeting other people at these meetings and exchanging tips on what to see or how to get there is only part of the usefulness of belonging to the RAS, which is the major organization…for introducing Korea to the West and Westerners…."

A group of foreigners and Koreans, from Jon Carter Covell's collection now being archived. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

RAS Korea has an extensive library of books on Korea and Asia in general. The more-than-3,000-book collection is continually expanding, with the recent acquisition of some 1,000 books from the late Peter E. Bartholomew. Bartholomew died in the spring of 2021 after more than 50 years as a resident of Korea. He was known as a "Protector of Hanok" and served on the RAS Korea council and as president for many years.

Pak Ji-young works on digitizing Jon Carter Covell's slide collection at the RAS Korea office. / Courtesy of RAS Korea

Volunteers are working very hard to digitize archival documents and catalog and organize books so that both researchers and the curious can access the 121-year-long history of both the society and Korea. Members of RAS Korea are welcome to use the library by appointment with the office.

Rev. Steven L. Shields is president of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea (www.raskb.com) and a columnist for The Korea Times. Visit raskb.com or email royalasiatickorea@gmail.com for more information about the society.