Ewha Museum and Girls High School

Ewha Museum and Girls High School

Ewha Museum And Girls High School

In commemoration of the 120th anniversary of the founding of Ewha Hakdang Ewha Museum was opened on May 31, 2006. The museum is established in Jeongdong Road, a historically relevant part of Seoul and the seat of modern Korea's cultural heritage. It is also where women's education began in Korea.

Through the fervour and sincere dedication of American Christian missionaries who came in 1886, education for women in Korea was made possible for the first time. Since its establishment, Ewha Girls' High School sustains its fine tradition of educating young Korean girls to prepare them to take on greater responsibilities.

Ewha Museum aims to be a space for relaying and spreading the good news and story of this special school for girls. I wish this school continues to produce leaders and examples that will continue to drive a Korean society acting with integrity and fine wisdom for the country and people.

Designation: Registered Cultural Property No.3 / Period: 1915

Location: 26, Jeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul

This building was constructed in 1915 at Ewha Hakdang on the funds donated by an American woman named Sarah J. Simpson, at her death. Ewha Hakdang was a school founded in 1886, by M. F. Scranton, a US Methodist missionary. At its founding, the school was set up inside Scranton's Korean-style house in Jeong-dong. Later, in 1899, the Main Hall, a Western-style building, was constructed, and the Simpson Memorial Hall and the Frey Hall were successively added, giving it gradually the appearance of the full-fledged campus. The Main Hall was destroyed during the Korean War, and the Frey Hall was consumed by fire in 1975. So, the only surviving building from this period is the Simpson Memorial Hall.

The red-brick building consists of one underground level and three above-ground levels. A section of the building was bombed during the Korean War and it was built out in 1961, but not into its earlier appearance. In October 2011, the building recovered its original appearance under a new restoration project using the bricks and granite blocks of the destroyed section that was lying about across the campus.

The atmosphere in the campus is now bright and cheerful with its arched windows and keystone granite walls. The building behind the front porch has a middle corner with a central staircase. The Simpson Memorial Hall is currently used for various educational activities, housing the Ewha Museum, classrooms and independent study rooms. 

Ewha Museum

The museum is an educational facility located in Simpson Memorial Hall at Ewha Girls' High School. It is opened to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the founding of Ewha Hakdang.

The museum stands on the land that was purchased in 1914 from Si Jong Won of the Imperial Government of Korea to address the shortage of classrooms. Simpson Memorial Hall is the oldest building in the campus. The original structure, about 200 pyeong, was built in 1915 with funds donated by the American philanthropist Sarah J. Simpson and sought to accommodate the rapidly growing student body of Ewah Hakdang. The popularity of the school necessitated an expansion of the building in 1922.

In the following decades, Simpson Memorial Hall was nearly demolished during the Japanese occupation and suffered extensive damage during the Korean War. However, it survived this tumultuous period, and in 1961 the building was restored and further expanded to its present area of 639 pyeong, or 2112 square meters. in 202, it became the third site in Korea to be designated as a Registered Cultural Property. Ewha Museum opened in 2006, and the exterior restoration work was completed in 2011.

Brief History of Ewha Girls' High School - Ewha Hakdang

The first girls' school in Korea began with a single pupil. The young woman, who came from a household of Kim, came to the school in May 1886 with the hope of becoming an English translator for Empress Myeongsong and was taught at the home of founder and head of school, Mary F. Scranton.

The second student was a girl known as 'Byeol-dan'. Her impoverished mother brought her to Principal Scranton when circumstances made it too difficult to raise the girl. However, the mother returned for her daughter after only a few months, afraid Mrs. Scranton would try to take the girl overseas. Principal Scranton assured the mother that she would never take Byeol-dan out of the country, writing a letter attesting to the fact. With Principal Scranton's reassurance, Byeol-dan stayed on at Ewha Hakdang and became the institution's first permanent student.

The next permanent student was named Kkon-nim and came to the school when she was only four years old. In the summer of 1886, cholera ran rampant throughout Seoul. The disease devastated the population, and as the season progressed, the bodies of victims piled up outside the castle walls. Dr. William Scranton, the son of Principal Scranton, found Kkon-nim abandoned and wandering the neighbourhood of Seodaemun alone, and brought the child to the school to be cared for. 

The fourth student was Kim Jeom-dong, or Esther Park, who later became Korea's first female physician. On the strength of her studies at Ewhaw Hakdang, Dr. Park went to the United States to study medicine, and later returned to Kora to become the first practising female doctor of Western medicine.

In November of 1886, the first school building for Ewha Hakdang was constructed where Ewha Grils' High Shcool stands today. This 20-pyeong building housed classrooms accommodating 35 students, the principal's office, a teachers' office, and a dormitory. In 1887, Emperor Gojong bestowed on the school the name of Ewha Hakdang and recognised it as the first female educational institution in Korea.