How curators change today into history
Published: 22 Dec. 2024, 19:43
KANG HYE-RAN
The author is a senior reporter on culture at the JoongAng Ilbo.
Girls’ Generation’s 2007 song “Into the New World” has emerged as a new protest song in the aftermath of Dec. 3 emergency martial law. The song was first sung in rallies during the Ewha Womans University sit-in in 2016, when students and alumni protested against the school’s plan to establish a college for lifelong education. Placards and appeal posters were posted around the school. Some of them were collected by the Ewha Museum, because they would be historical records even if they were not classified as a relic right away.
Some people have also been busy at the rallies for and against the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The artifacts collected by the staff of the National Museum of Korean History included glow-in-the-dark cheering sticks, various hand warmers, balloons, and hand-held national flags, showcasing the different protest culture of millennials and Gen Z. The collection includes the extra edition of the JoongAng Ilbo reporting the passage of the impeachment motion by the National Assembly. As the “living wastes” of the ancient people we see in museums provide great historical clues, the gravity of the collection can be gauged.
In fact, there have been cases in which such data became a national registered cultural heritage. A case in point is a participant survey taken by Yonsei University students Kim Dal-jung and Ahn Byung-joon during the April 19 Revolution in 1960, when they met with the injured, witnesses and the arrested. The survey captured the testimony from an arrested protestor as he was being taken, “I am innocent but I am afraid I would be tortured for a false charge of Communism.” The survey became a registered heritage along with emergency martial law declaration leaflets, armbands worn by students and posters collected from the scene. A list of injured protestors at the time of April 18 rally at Korea University, which triggered the revolution, is registered separately.
Just because records existed at an historical upheaval doesn’t mean they can tell you what really happened at that time. Right after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, curators at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., were agonizing over what to collect and preserve. Someone asked a question. “If you lived in Sarajevo on June 24, 1914, what would you collect?” Who would have predicted that a bullet directed at the Austrian crown prince would lead to a world war?
Therefore, they decided to stick to the basic collection. Included were fragments and debris of the sites of the attacks and photos recording the victims. Furthermore, they worked on securing articles with specific storytelling. One curator was particularly interested in the story of a window washer on The New York Times. Trapped in the elevator in the World Trade Center, he barely escaped using his cleaning equipment. The museum traced the window washer and convinced him to donate his uniform and dust covered squeegee.
Kim Su-jin, director of education at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History said, “A collection is more meaningful if it connected to the existential human beings at the place at the time rather than passive collection.” That’s how our today becomes history.
The author is a senior reporter on culture at the JoongAng Ilbo.
Girls’ Generation’s 2007 song “Into the New World” has emerged as a new protest song in the aftermath of Dec. 3 emergency martial law. The song was first sung in rallies during the Ewha Womans University sit-in in 2016, when students and alumni protested against the school’s plan to establish a college for lifelong education. Placards and appeal posters were posted around the school. Some of them were collected by the Ewha Museum, because they would be historical records even if they were not classified as a relic right away.
Some people have also been busy at the rallies for and against the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The artifacts collected by the staff of the National Museum of Korean History included glow-in-the-dark cheering sticks, various hand warmers, balloons, and hand-held national flags, showcasing the different protest culture of millennials and Gen Z. The collection includes the extra edition of the JoongAng Ilbo reporting the passage of the impeachment motion by the National Assembly. As the “living wastes” of the ancient people we see in museums provide great historical clues, the gravity of the collection can be gauged.
In fact, there have been cases in which such data became a national registered cultural heritage. A case in point is a participant survey taken by Yonsei University students Kim Dal-jung and Ahn Byung-joon during the April 19 Revolution in 1960, when they met with the injured, witnesses and the arrested. The survey captured the testimony from an arrested protestor as he was being taken, “I am innocent but I am afraid I would be tortured for a false charge of Communism.” The survey became a registered heritage along with emergency martial law declaration leaflets, armbands worn by students and posters collected from the scene. A list of injured protestors at the time of April 18 rally at Korea University, which triggered the revolution, is registered separately.
Just because records existed at an historical upheaval doesn’t mean they can tell you what really happened at that time. Right after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, curators at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., were agonizing over what to collect and preserve. Someone asked a question. “If you lived in Sarajevo on June 24, 1914, what would you collect?” Who would have predicted that a bullet directed at the Austrian crown prince would lead to a world war?
Therefore, they decided to stick to the basic collection. Included were fragments and debris of the sites of the attacks and photos recording the victims. Furthermore, they worked on securing articles with specific storytelling. One curator was particularly interested in the story of a window washer on The New York Times. Trapped in the elevator in the World Trade Center, he barely escaped using his cleaning equipment. The museum traced the window washer and convinced him to donate his uniform and dust covered squeegee.
Kim Su-jin, director of education at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History said, “A collection is more meaningful if it connected to the existential human beings at the place at the time rather than passive collection.” That’s how our today becomes history.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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