Eugene Irving Knez papers
name: label: Creator
content: Knez, Eugene I. (Eugene Irving), 1916-2010
label: Names
content: East China Seas Program
label: Names
content: Korean National Museum of Anthropology
label: Names
content: National Folk Museum of Korea
label: Names
content: National Museum of Korea
place: label: Place
content: Korea
label: Place
content: Tibet
label: Place
content: Bhutan
label: Place
content: East Asia
label: Place
content: Nepal
topic: label: Topic
content: Village life -- Korea
label: Topic
content: Language and languages -- Documentation
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Most of the papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Dr. Knez in 1978. There have been additional accretions since then.
creator: label: Creator
content: Knez, Eugene I. (Eugene Irving), 1916-2010
setName: label: See more items in
content: Eugene Irving Knez papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The Knez papers include material concerning many aspects of his career up to the time he retired from the Smithsonian. Of particular strength is the documentation of Asian exhibits, both temporary and permanent ones installed during his time at the Institution. There is also considerable material concerning specimens and collections acquired earlier. Material concerning Knez's work as a field researcher, bibliographer, and editor are also among the papers. After his retirement, Knez became involved in a study of Buddhism among the Tibetans living in India. Copies of film made for this study have been deposited in the Human Studies Film Archives. It should be noted that the papers represent only a portion of the Knez papers, for he has retained some of them.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Eugene I. Knez was born Eugene Irving Knezevich on May 12, 1916, in Clinton, Indiana, where he graduated from high school in 1935. His mother and father, Ida and Sam Knezevich, were divorced in 1932, and in 1936, his mother married Edward P. Pearson. The family moved to California where Knez enrolled in pre-medical studies at Los Angeles City College. Knez transferred to the University of New Mexico (UNM), but before completing his studies, returned to Indiana to be with his father, who was ill. There, Knez enrolled at Indiana University. Since Indiana University did not offer courses in anthropology, Knez took classes in sociology and psychology so that he could fulfill the requirements of UNM. Upon completion of his course work at Indiana University, UNM awarded Knez a B.A. in 1941.

While attending the University of New Mexico, Knez was primarily interested in the Native American Indian. During the summer of 1939 he was appointed Park Ranger-Historian in the National Park Service at Coolidge, Arizona. When he returned to Indiana to be with his father, Knez found a summer job as an assistant to a psychologist, who was testing inmates at the Indiana State Farm.

Knez was drafted as a private in the United States Army in 1941. He was promoted to sergeant in 1942 and during that same year was selected for Officer's Candidate School. Knez graduated OCS as a second lieutenant. Knez was trained and later moved into personnel classification and assignment sections in various divisions before and during World War II. In 1945, he was promoted to captain while in a combat support unit on Saipan.

At the end of the war Knez was assigned to Korea. This assignment began a pivotal sequence of events in his life. With his background in anthropology, Knez was placed in charge of the Army's Bureau of Culture, National Department of Education, United States Military Government in Korea headquartered in Seoul. His responsibilities included the restoration of cultural and religious activities, including museums. At the Bureau, Knez developed a sensitivity towards Korea and her people in the aftermath of Japanese colonialism. Knez undertook the restoration of Admiral Yi's large inscribed boulder and a Buddhist pagoda that had been partially dismantled by the Japanese. He established The National Museum of Anthropology (which became the National Folk Museum). In 1946 Knez sponsored an expedition to Cheju Island to collect ethnographic artifacts and record music for the Museum. During that year he also received permission to excavate two royal Silla Tombs at Kyonju with staff from the National Museum of Korea (NMK). This was the beginning of an endearing association with Korea and her people, which culminated in Knez receiving the award of The Order of Cultural Merit (gold medal) in 1995 from the Republic of Korea. 

Knez was discharged from the United States Army in 1946. From 1947 to 1948, he attended Yale University as a research assistant in anthropology and worked at the Peabody Museum. He then joined the federal government and from 1949 to 1953 Knez served as a Cultural Affairs and Public Affairs officer at the American embassies in Korea and Japan. From 1949 to 1951, Knez was chief of Branch Operations, United States Information Agency, first headquartered in Seoul and then moving from Seoul to Pusan with the invasion by North Korea. 

During his assignment in Korea, Knez undertook several major activities that had a profound effect on his life. With the approaching North Korean forces getting ready to invade Seoul for the second time, Kim, Chewon, director of the National Museum of Korea, approached Knez and made a personal request to help save the Museum's treasures. Though Knez was a war time member of the American Embassy he undertook the task without receiving official permission. He coordinated the movement of the Museum and Yi dynasty collections and some of the Museum staff by having them shipped by railroad boxcar from Seoul to Pusan.

During the fighting Knez began his ethnographic material culture research at Sam Jong Dong in the Kimhae region north of Pusan. When it appeared in 1951 that the United Nations was losing the war, Knez received permission to spend two months of his home leave to stay in Korea to continue his research. This study was to continue into the 1990s.

While in Pusan, Knez recommended that two dinners be held to help the morale of Korea's cultural leaders, those who were refugees from Seoul. One dinner was to be for the older generation and the second for younger Korean scholars and members of the cultural community. At the second dinner, Knez met his future bride, Choi, Jiae, a highly regarded Korean actress. 

During 1951, Knez was transferred to Tokyo as Policy and Program officer for the United States Information Agency. In 1952 he was assigned as the USIA regional Public Affairs officer in Fukuoka.

In 1953, Knez left the USIA and joined the staff at Hunter College, located in the Bronx, New York, first as a lecturer and then as an instructor. While teaching at Hunter, Knez attended graduate school at Syracuse University. In 1959, he received a Doctor of Social Science Degree in anthropology from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Knez's thesis was Sam Jong Dong: A South Korean Village. During the school year 1968-1969, the Maxwell School went from awarding the D.S.Sc. degree to the Ph.D. In 1970, Knez successfully petitioned the School to have his degree changed.

In 1959, Knez was appointed Associate Curator of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. He was given the responsibility for Asian ethnology and was assigned the task of establishing the first permanent Asian exhibitions in two halls at the United States National Museum (later, the National Museum of Natural History). At the time, the Asian collections available for the halls were poor or non-existent. Knez began his first of several field expeditions to augment the Museum's artifact and cultural collections. Almost all of the Asian exhibitions that he planned had to have collections taken directly from the field.

The first permanent exhibition was opened in 1961 and contained information on the South Asian World in Miniature, India and Pakistan. During the year two more exhibitions were completed, documenting India, Pakistan, and Thailand. In 1962, Knez completed fifteen more exhibitions; he completed eight in 1963 and 1964; one in 1965; and one in 1967. The themes for the exhibitions included China, Japan, Iran, Korea, Tibet, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan, India, East Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, Islam, and Buddhism. 

From 1963 through 1973, Knez put together additional temporary exhibitions, which included themes on Korea, China, India, Japan, Bhutan, and acquisitions of Hindu and Buddhist sculpture. In 1967, Knez provided the objects and created the documentation for the United States Department of State exhibition honoring the visit of the King and Queen of Thailand. Knez developed an exhibition about Korea, which went on display between 1977 and 1979 and was coordinated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

Knez retired from the Smithsonian in November 1978 and was appointed Anthropologist Emeritus in 1979. Knez moved to Hawaii and developed ties with the University of Hawaii as a visiting scholar at the Center for Korean Studies. Knez continued his research on the Kimhae region, and in 1993, published his revised, The Modernization of Three Korean Villages, 1951-81: an Illustrated study of a people and their material culture.

May 12, 1916 -- Born

1935 -- Graduated High School

1941 -- Drafted, Private, United States Army B.A., University of New Mexico

1942 -- Officer's Candidate School, 2nd Lieutenant, United States Army

1945 -- Promoted to Captain, United States Army 

1945-1946 -- United States Army, In charge, Bureau of Culture, National Department of Education, Seoul, Korea

1946 -- Excavation, National Museum of Korea, Royal Silla Tomb, Kyongju Ethnographic and Geographic Survey, National Folk Museum of Anthropology, Korea, Cheju Island

August 1946 -- Honorable Discharge, United States Army

1947-1948 -- Yale University, Peabody Museum, Research Assistant in Anthropology

1947 -- Study of American Indian Shaker cult, Washington State Museum, Seattle

1949 -- Changed Name from Knezevich to Knez

1949-1951 -- Wartime Center Director, United States Information Service, Pusan, Korea

1951 -- Shipment of National Museum of Korea Collections and Staff from Seoul to Pusan

1951-1952 -- Ethnographic Study of Kimhae Area, Korea, towards a dissertation

1952-1976 -- United States Army Reserve (retired as Full Colonel)

1953-1959 -- Lecturer and Instructor, Hunter College, New York

1959 -- Fellow, American Anthropological Association D.S.S.C. (later, Ph.D.) Syracuse University Anthropologist, Smithsonian Institution

1961-1962 -- Overseas Collecting Trips to Asia

1961 -- First Asian Exhibition Installation

1962 -- Letter of Appreciation, Republic of Korea

1965 -- Smithsonian Special Act (Development of Asian Collections) Award

1966 -- Member of the United States Museums Advisory Delegation Planning Meeting for the Establishment of a Korean National Science Museum Center, Seoul

1970 -- Award, Korean Village Study, Smithsonian Institution, Secretary's Fund

1971 -- Exhibition, A Korean Village: Its Changing Culture, which was later adapted as a traveling exhibition in the United States and Canada

1974 -- Exhibition, Bhutan: The Land of Dragons

1975 -- Invited Participant, Pakistan-Sind Government International Seminar

1977 -- Exhibition, Arms and Armor of Japan

1978 -- Retired, Smithsonian Institution Fellow, The Explorers Club, New York

1979 -- Anthropologist Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution Award, Himalayan Project, Tibetan Buddhism and Its Role in Society and State, National Endowment for the Humanities, which led to a publication by Knez with Franz Michael

1981 -- Award, Fulbright Senior Scholar, Korea, Council for International Exchange of Scholars

1995 -- Presentation of The Order of Culture Merit (Gold Medal), Republic of Korea
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 57.6 Linear feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1920–2000, With Information Dating Back to 1481
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.1980-22
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into fourteen (14) series: 

SERIES 1.Accession Correspondence and Information and Examination and Reports of Collections, 1959-1977 and undated, with information dating back to 1893, boxes 1-4

SERIES 2.Subject File, 1937-1999 and undated, with information dating back to 1852, boxes 4-32

SERIES 3.Professional and Non-Professional Association Material, 1955-1980, with information dating back to 1896, boxes 33-36

SERIES 4.Exhibitions, 1960-1977 and undated, with information dating back to 1876, boxes 36-43

SERIES 5.Research Grants, 1963-1981 and undated, with information dating back to 1884, boxes 43-46

SERIES 6.Research Projects, 1909, 1929-2000 and undated, with information dating back to 1481, boxes 47-115

SERIES 7.Geographical and Publications Files, 1929-1977 and undated, boxes 116-139

SERIES 8.Korean and Chinese Writings, boxes 140-141

SERIES 9.Collection and Research Photographs, 1946-1977 and undated, boxes 142-161

SERIES 10.Motion Picture Film and Sound Recordings, 1946-1978 and undated, boxes 162-164

SERIES 11.Phonograph Recordings, 1959- and undated, with recordings possibly dating back to the 1940s, boxes 165-170

SERIES 12.Invitations and Greetings, box 171

SERIES 13.Biographical and Autobiographical Material, Family Photographs, and Notes, circa 1920s-1997 and undated, boxes 172-174

SERIES 14.Oversize, 1952-1971 and undated, box 175 and oversize map case drawers
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: In 2009, the sound recordings were separated from the collection and stored in the audio cabinets. Loose notes were separated from the recordings and placed in a folder titled "Audio ephemera."
 
The completion of this project would not have occurred without the assistance of Smithsonian staff, volunteers, and interns. I would like to thank Ms. Chang-Su Houchins, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, for providing information to questions I had regarding East Asian material and translations and information on Japanese and Korean writings and photographs as well as coordinating the translation of Chinese text, and to her assistant, Yong-Jean Park, for a translation to Knez's biography written in Korean (Hangul); the description for part of series nine, Collection and Research Photographs, was completed by Barbara Coons while a staff member at the National Anthropological Archives (NAA); volunteer Miho Matsuda contributed towards the translation of photographic descriptions located in the albums in series six, Research Projects; intern Yoko Yamaguchi continued the translations to the photograph volumes, provided translations for several phonograph recordings in series eleven, and refolded the contents in the collection; NAA staff, Robert Leopold and Susan McElrath, for overall support and placing this finding aid on the Archives web site; and to staff of the Human Studies Film Archives, Mark White and Daisy Njoku for assisting in the review of Korean motion picture film. All errors of name renditions, omissions, and inaccuracies regarding people, events, and time are mine.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Knez was not a prolific writer. Though his research encompassed East and Southeast Asia, his field expeditions for collections and his charge to establish the first permanent Asian halls while at the Smithsonian limited his scientific writings to documentation required for Smithsonian exhibitions and his ongoing interest in the material culture of Sam Jong Dong and The Three Ministries, located in the Kimhae region of southeast Korea. To overcome Asian language barriers, Knez had to utilize informants, Korean scholars, and translators in order to carry out his research. The materials that he collected or were forwarded to him about Asia, however, represent an impressive body of information that researchers of Southeast Asia would want to review for general studies. Of special importance would be the information about culture around the South China Sea, and especially studies about Korean and Japanese ethnology and anthropology, the pre-colonial and colonial period, the period right after World War II, the Korean War, and changes in Korean agricultural farming life, from the early 1900s through the 1980s. A knowledge of Chinese calligraphy, Korean Hangul, and pre-World War Two Japanese (Taisho and Showa Periods) are required to understand the complete record documenting Korean history. 

These papers contain detailed correspondence and memoranda, documenting Knez's professional life as a curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. Visual images, photographs, slides, videotapes, film, and sound recording as well as research information and correspondence provide a complete record of the exhibitions that Knez established at the Smithsonian. Correspondence, memoranda, and photographs provide a less complete picture of Knez's activities before his appointment as curator. There is a very strong and complete record of his activities while stationed in Korea after World War II and during the Korean War. This material includes correspondence, photographs and film footage. Knez also brought out of Korea photographs that were taken by the Japanese during the colonial period. There is also film footage taken around 1946 on Cheju Island. In addition, there are postcards and photo cards that contain a rich visual image of Korea dating back before the 1920s.

The largest series within these papers contains Knez's material culture research on Korea. This series includes field notes, interviews, transcriptions, correspondence, photographs, publications and translations about Korean history dating back to 1481, Japanese publications and translations regarding anthropomorphic and agricultural studies of Koreans and Korean agricultural life, and Knez's draft publications. There is a large series of photographs and slides documenting Asian art collections as well as Asian cultures. The Knez Papers also includes a phonograph record collection which is not dated and contains Korean and Japanese opera and folk songs. In addition, there is a collection of Confucius teachings, school books, and genealogy written in Chinese calligraphy and Hangul.

The arrangement of these papers and the file folders within the series are not always well ordered. Multiple accessions were transferred to the National Anthropological Archives. Where subject information was the same, folders were filed into existing series developed in the 1970s and 1980s. In similar fashion, individual items that were not within folders were interfiled in existing folders that contained the same information.

The research series (series six), which primarily documents Knez's research activities and information he received or collected on Korea has some provenance. The material was reboxed several times, but there remains segments of information that are completely related. At other times, there is no logical relationship between one group of files and the next. Most of the folders were never dated. Therefore, it is difficult to understand the different periods in Knez's life when he worked on his Korean studies, without going through the entire series. Photographs are not always dated. Only a very small number were used in Knez's 1997 publication (where they are dated), The Modernization of Three Korean villages, 1951-1981 (Smithsonian Institution Press). 

Most of the series within these papers contain different aspects of Knez's interest in Asia, and in particular, his focus on Korea. For example, correspondence regarding Knez's activities during his stay in Korea after World War II and during the Korean War will be found in series two, Subject File; photographs documenting the same time period will be found in series six, Research Projects, and series thirteen, Biographical and Autobiographical Material. And, series ten, Motion Picture Film and Sound Recordings, contain visual images of Knez's activities in Korea during 1946, 1950-1951. 

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The National Anthropological Archives holds Franz H. Michael and Eugene I. Knez photographs and sound recordings relating to Tibetan Buddhism in northeastern India (NAA.PhotoLot.80-13).
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Materials
content: The motion picture film was transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives in 2002 (HSFA.2002.09).