Collection Guide
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Sohn (Won Tai) papers
3029
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries East Asian Library
Title: Won Tai Sohn papers
Creator:
Sohn, Won Tai, 1914-2004
Identifier/Call Number: 3029
Identifier/Call Number: /repositories/6/resources/1518
Physical Description:
5 Linear Feet
5 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1917-2004
Abstract: This small collection is comprised primarily of printed materials and manuscript drafts collected and created by Korean-American
physician Won Tai Sohn (1914-2014), a close friend of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung (1912-1994). Items chiefly date from
the 1970s to early 2000s and include articles, clippings, and drafts of Sohn's memoirs regarding his relationship with Sung.
It also contains photographs, certificates, personal papers, and ephemera.
Language of Material: Collection is predominantly in Korean.
Won Tai Sohn was born on August 11, 1914, in Seoul, Korea. He moved to the United States and graduated from Yonsei Severance
Medical School in 1945. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1949 and finished residency in pathology
at Cook County Hospital in 1952. In 1965, Sohn completed a Clinical Cyptopathology course at Johns Hopkins. In 1972 he moved
to Omaha, Nebraska, where he served sixteen years as a staff pathologist at Bishop Clarkson Hospital. He retired from both
teaching and practicing medicine in 1986. In 1992, Sohn visited North Korea, rekindling his old friendship with the President
at the time Kim Il Sung. In 2003, his book entitled "Kim Il Sung and Korea's Struggle: an Unconventional Firsthand History"
was published by McFarland and Company.
Sohn passed away on September 28, 2014, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was survived by his wife Yoo Shin Lee, sons Dr. Carol Sohn
and Rocky Sohn, and daughter Yonghi Sohn.
This small collection is comprised primarily of printed materials and manuscript drafts collected and created by Korean-American
physician Won Tai Sohn (1914-2014), a close friend of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung (1912-1994). The majority of the collection
(primarily in Korean) dates from the 1970s to early 2000s and is comprised of printed materials in the form of articles, clippings,
pamphlets, books, reports, programs, and numerous early drafts of Sohn's memoirs, under its original working titles "The Divided
Korean Peninsula: the Memoirs of Dr. Won Tai Sohn" and "My Relationship with Kim Il Sung (1918-1994): the Memoirs of Dr. Won
Tai Sohn." The collection also contains personal photographs, albums, negatives, and certificates relating to Sohn's medical
career, trip to North Korea in 1992 to visit Kim Il Sung, and familial history. The remainder of the collection comprises
personal papers consisting of resumes, notebooks, correspondence, travel documents, Sohn's obituary and sympathy cards, and
ephemera in the form of a name plate and a rubbing on parchment.
Advance notice required for access.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of the Korean
Heritage Library. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Korean Heritage 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.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of the estate of Won Tai Sohn.
[Box/Folder# or Item name], Won Tai Sohn papers, Collection no. 3029, Korean Heritage Library, USC Libraries, University of
Southern California.
A basic resource record was completed for this collection in 2014 with materials not fully processed. Full processing of the
collection was done in May 2018 along with the creation of an updated full and complete finding aid by Sungjin Park and Sarah
Cassone. While performing this work, the archivist noted some items in the collection that were not part of the original acquisition.
These included a softcover copy of Sohn's book, "Kim Il Sung and Korea's Struggle: an Unconventional Firsthand History" and
a published booklet by Kim Il Sung. Both of these items already had USC library call numbers and location information. The
items were removed and placed back in their original locations. Additionally, three DVD-Rs were found within the collection
relating to Sohn, Sung, and Sohn's father Sohn Jong Do, along with a letter to USC indicating they were given to the library
by someone unrelated to Sohn, independent of this collection's acquisition. These items were also removed so they may be cataloged
within USC Libraries East Asian audiovisual collection. Additional work was done by USC students in 2019 as part of the "Piloting
a Shared Practice for Accessible Archival Descriptions" Dean's Challenge Grant and the finding aid was revised and updated
by Diann Benti in 2021.
The Won Tai Sohn papers are organized into the following series: 1. Printed Materials; 2. Clippings and article reprints;
3. The Divided Peninsula; 4. Photographs; 5. Certificates; 6. Personal papers and ephemera. Arrangement within series is chronological.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Communism -- Korea (North) -- Archival resources
Korean American physicians -- Nebraska -- Omaha -- Archival resources
Korea -- Description and travel -- Archival resources
Korea (North) -- Politics and government -- 1948-1994 -- Archival resources
Books
Certificates
Clippings (information artifacts)
Manuscripts
Memoirs
Photograph albums
Sohn, Won Tai, 1914-2004 -- Archives
Kim, Il-sŏng, 1912-1994