Seoul in the 1960s

A photo of a Korean woman and her child as women wash their clothes in a stream. Taken in Seoul circa 1960 by Leroy Smothers.

I recently read an interesting news story in KoreaBang about a set of photos gaining interest on flickr. The photos were taken by a USAID worker who lived in South Korea during the 1950s and 1960s and were recently uploaded online by his son. In the set of nearly two hundred photos, there isn't a single photo that looks like the Korea people know today, and it is fascinating. I especially like the photos taken in Seoul and Jeju; they really give you a concrete anchor from which to base the observation that Korea has changed dramatically in only a few short centuries: a phenomenon popularly called the Miracle on the Han River.

The complete flickr set can be found by clicking here. A smaller set with a few choice photos can be found by clicking here. I highly encourage you to check them out!