1904 — Emperor Gojong and Crown Prince Yi Cheok in ceremonial military dress

1904-06-01T00:00:00Z

TITLE: Emperor Gojong and Crown Prince Yi Cheok in ceremonial military dress DATE: June 1904 LOCATION: Seoul, Korean Empire (대한제국). The view shows Emperor Gojong and Crown Prince Yi Cheok, later Emperor Sunjong, posed before an unidentified brick building associated with the imperial court; modern reference point: Seoul, South Korea. INTERPRETIVE SUMMARY: This photograph shows Emperor Gojong at left and his son and heir Yi Cheok at right in formal Western-style military court dress adopted during the Korean Empire period. The print preserves a widely circulated imperial portrait type that was already in circulation by ca. 1904, as shown by the matching Cornell University example in the Willard D. Straight in Korea collection. Within the Gilbert family collection, the print belongs most plausibly to the family’s first East Asia journey in 1904. Mattie Sophia (Thayer) Gilbert wrote from Warren, Pennsylvania, on 14 April 1904 about the prospect of “going to China,” and the family timeline places the Gilberts at sea on 9 July and in Shanghai on 10 July 1904. Related Gilbert collection photographs from Kobe are dated to June 1904 and belong to the same transit interval. HISTORICAL NOTE: Cornell University catalogs the matching image as [King Kojong and King Sunjong] in the Willard D. Straight in Korea collection and dates that example ca. 1904. Its description identifies the two figures as Kojong and his heir Sunjong and notes that the Western-style court uniform had been introduced by Kojong’s order in 1895. The National Palace Museum of Korea catalogs the same image type as Emperor Gojong and Imperial Crown Prince in Military Attire and assigns it the date 1900. The Library of Congress preserves another copy under the title Korean Emperor [Kojong] and Crown Prince [Yi Wang], but its “ca. 1907” notation is explicitly described there as unverified old caption-card data. For the Gilbert family copy, the most defensible caption date is June 1904, which reflects the most likely point at which the print entered family possession. The family was still in Warren through spring 1904, was preparing for departure by mid-April, and had reached Shanghai by 10 July. The Gilbert collection already contains Kobe excursion photographs dated to June 1904 from this outbound passage. A Korea-related souvenir or commercially available print fits that same travel phase, and contemporary transport networks linked Kobe, Fusan, Chemulpo, Chi-fu, and Taku along the Japan-Korea-North China corridor used in this period. The present object is best understood as a travel-acquired Korean imperial portrait obtained during the Gilberts’ June 1904 eastbound journey, before their arrival in China and before the longer family residence in Peking, Chefoo, Nanking, Hankow, and Wuchang recorded in later letters and family chronology. MEDIUM: Black-and-white photographic print, sepia-toned in present appearance, exact process indeterminate from the digital surrogate alone. Loose vertical-format print with narrow pale margins and a broader lower border. The surviving image shows heavy surface scratching and abrasion across the upper half, fading and bleaching in the lower portion, scattered wear, and loss at the lower-right corner. DETAILED VISUAL DESCRIPTION: Two East Asian adult men stand side by side on masonry steps before a dark entrance. At the right edge of the composition a brick wall rises in regular horizontal courses. The man at left, identified as Emperor Gojong, wears a plumed helmet, a dark braided ceremonial tunic with heavy epaulettes, a diagonal sash, breast insignia, broad waist belts, decorated cuffs, and dark trousers. He has a mustache and pointed beard and holds a narrow sword or cane downward at his side. The man at right, identified as Crown Prince Yi Cheok, wears a closely related ceremonial uniform with plumed helmet, braided front closures, epaulettes, waist belts, decorated cuffs, and dark trousers. He also holds a narrow sword or cane. Both figures face the camera in a formal frontal pose. A faint handwritten or penciled lower-margin caption survives on the print and appears to identify the Korean emperor and his heir, though the final words are weakened by damage and are not fully legible. RECTO / VERSO OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND INSCRIPTIONS: Recto examined from digital surrogate. Loose vertical photographic print with narrow margins and no visible studio imprint or publisher’s mark. Faint lower-margin manuscript caption naming the Korean emperor and heir; full exact transcription not securely recoverable from the available scan. Verso not examined. PROVENANCE: Gilbert family collection. Originally in the possession of Alvin Walter Gilbert Sr. (1873–1948) and Mattie Sophia (Thayer) Gilbert (1869–1937); by descent to their daughter, Katharine P. (Gilbert) Aeschliman; by descent to her daughter, Elinor Jean (Aeschliman) Huber; digitized from the family-held original and uploaded by Travis Clayton Mallett, great-great-grandson of Alvin Walter Gilbert Sr. and Mattie Sophia (Thayer) Gilbert.