The Chang Sei Kim family papers (circa 1920-1945) document the life of Chang Sei Kim, a Korean doctor and independence movement activist, and his family through copies of records from the National Archives, biographies, and copies of correspondence between Chang Sei Kim and Captain Max Becker.

Chang Sei Kim (1893-1934). Korean doctor, missionary and independence movement activist. After graduating from Severance Medical College in 1916, Chang Sei Kim worked as a missionary in an Adventist hospital in Shanghai. The establishment of the Korean Provisional Government led him to participate in the independence movement; focusing on educating nurses, he believed that the health of Koreans would be a key factor for achieving independence and that improving nurse training would support this effort. In the 1920s he left for the U.S. to conduct comprehensive research on medicine, and he received his doctorate in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in 1925, making him the first Korean doctor to recieve a degree from a foreign country. He traveled through Europe, the Balkans, and Egypt, later becoming a professor at Severance Medical College where he completed his own public health theory, "Reconstruction of the Korean People In Terms of Physical Constitution." He returned to the U.S in 1930, continuing to engage in independence activism and public health initiatives until his death in 1934.

1 manuscript box, 1 USB flash drive (0.4 Linear Feet)

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