In 1910, an Australian missionary family arrived in the port city of Busan. Over the next 60 years, the family traveled to cities across the country to provide medical assistance to the needy, documenting their journey in some 9,000 photographs.

For over 26 years, Dr. James Mackenzie (1865-1956) and his nurse-wife Mary Kelly (1880-1964), ran the Sangaewon (상애원), a treatment facility for leprosy in Busan. While carrying out their philanthropic work, the couple enjoyed taking pictures of the countryside. Several decades later, the two daughters continued their parents' work, having inherited their compassion and love for photos.





The Mackenzie sisters, Helen (1913-2009) and Catherine (1915-2005), spent their childhoods in Busan. After completing high school in Pyongyang, they went back to Australia to attend medical school. Helen became a doctor and Catherine a nurse. Having attained their medical degrees, the sisters decided to return to Busan in 1952, at a time when Korea was being swept up in the terrors of war.

Once in Busan, the sisters founded the Ilsin Christian Hospital (일신기독병원) in the central Dong-gu District. There, just as their parents had done, they cared for patients and orphaned children. They also helped women in childbirth and treated infants and children suffering from illnesses.

Before returning back to Australia in the late 1970s, the Mackenzie sisters documented their time in Korea through thousands of pictures that depict landscapes and the daily life of ordinary people. These include photos of Busan's leprosy colony, the Maechukji Village in Dong-gu District, Gwangalli Beach and the Busan East (K-9) Air Base, which was the former U.S. and Korean Air Force base in Haeundae District. The sisters also took many shots of Korean mothers with their children, against the backdrop of a country recovering from the shock of war.





On Sept. 1, the Kyonggi University museum unveiled some 2,000 photographs taken by the Mackenzie family over two generations.

The exhibit, Story of Australian Mackenzie Family's Outing to Korea, features photos of the Ilsin Christian Hospital, Busan's Jagalchi Market in the 1950s, as well as pictures of young mothers looking after their infants in the aftermath of war. The portfolio also includes shots of families engaging in day-to-day activities in a developing Korea.

These photos were discovered only in 2001 when family members were sorting through Helen's belongings after her passing. The Mackenzie family donated the film to Ilsin Christian Hospital, and the photos were subsequently handed to Kyonggi University museum.

The exhibit is scheduled to run until June 16, 2017.

More information on the exhibit can be found at the link below.
http://museum.kyonggi.ac.kr/index.html

By Lee Hana
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Kyonggi University museum
hlee10@korea.kr