Description
The Young Tak Kim and Annabelle Kim papers consist of correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, notebooks, ephemera,
and other material created by Young Tak Kim (1920-2004) and Annabelle Kim, née Lee (1921-2015) before and during their marriage.
Young Tak and Annabelle met on New Year's Eve in 1937 and their correspondence began in early 1938. The collection includes
close to 1000 letters written by both Young Tak Kim and Annabelle Kim. The bulk of the correspondence is dated between 1938
and 1945. All of the letters are written in English, with a few instances of Korean writing found within a small number of
the letters. Young Tak Kim was born in Los Angeles to a family belonging to the Korean American Pioneer community. Annabelle
Kim, born in northern California, moved to Los Angeles during World War II. The collection documents wartime Korean American
youth cultures and organizations, the youth movement in Los Angeles in support of the Korean Independence Movement, and Korean
Americans' involvement in agricultural work in Southern California and the Central Valley. The correspondence in the collection
also mentions other prominent members of the Korean American Pioneer community, such as Philip Ahn.
Background
Michelle (Shelley) Kim, the granddaughter of Young Tak Kim and Annabelle Kim and the donor of the collection, supplied the
following biographical information.
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of the East
Asian Library at eal@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the East Asian Library as the owner of the
physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.