The truth in advertisements
.jpg?w=728)
Sports circa 1900s / Courtesy of Robert Neff collection
By Robert Neff
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, using colorful images of Korea became a popular method employed by some companies to advertise their goods. Often these images were whimsical creations of artists and their imagination. Others were collages of images, real and imagined.
Liebig’s Beef Extract cards from the late 1890s and early 1900s are good examples. One beautiful card somewhat correctly portrays the Japanese foreign settlement of Jemulpo (Incheon). Roze Island (Wolmido) can be seen in the background and the Daibutsu Hotel dominates the center of the scene.
Leibig’s portrayal of the streets of Seoul seems somewhat accurate ― perhaps the tall castle-like white building behind the trees is supposed to represent the Russian legation. As for the colorfully dressed woman to the left, it is anyone’s guess as to who she might represent.
.jpg?w=728)
Japan the dance of the Corean tiger circa 1900s / Courtesy of Robert Neff collection
The other Leibig cards in this Korean series seem to show the influence of a mix of cultures. The palace is clearly not one of those in Seoul, the farm scene and the fortune-teller appears to be more Chinese or from a region further south.
Some images of Korean culture can be found in unexpected places.
A Liebig card for Japan has an interesting image of a Bukcheong talchum (Korean mask dance) being performed in Japan. In this theatrical performance named “The Lion Dance of Korea” (known in Korea as the saja noreum), Japanese children can be seen hiding behind objects or clinging to their mothers while some of their braver peers dance and frolic about the great beast.
It is easy to understand these earlier cards and their mistakes because there weren’t that many photographs of Korea readily available at that time. But there are no excuses for Leibig’s later cards (1903-1910) such as one entitled the “European Settlements in the Korean Straits.” Instead of using an image based on the widely available photographic sources (postcards and books), the company chose to use images based on what the artists perceived to be Korea.
.jpg?w=728)
Jemulpo circa 1900s Courtesy of Robert Neff collection
But Leibig was not the only company to do so.
In the early 1900s, a German company (Dr. Genter’s Nigrin Shoe Polish and Gentol Metal Polish) distributed their own colorful advertisement cards of exotic places around the world. One such card depicts an idyllic scene of Korean archery in a coastal village on the Korean Strait. The card is beautiful but it is inaccurate. The archer seems more European than Korean and the buildings seem more Chinese. The map, of course, is another matter of contention ― a modern one.
Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at