An envelope that held a letter from Victor Wellington Peters to his parents in Southern California
A new collection of correspondence by an American missionary in Korea is now publicly accessible through the USC Digital Library. The new Peters Collection comprises hundreds of letters, postcards, and souvenirs sent by the missionary, Victor Wellington Peters, to his parents in Rosemead, California.
Peters (born 1902) is a retired pastor, teacher, author, and artist who represented Trinity Methodist Church of Los Angeles as a missionary in Seoul, Korea. He attended both UCLA and USC, earning his B.A. in 1924 and a Doctor of Theology degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1928.
Peters' writings chronicle the life of an American missionary in Japanese-occupied Korea, where he served from 1928 to 1941. It was there that he met his wife Ruth (née Hahn Heung Bok). By many accounts, the Peters' marriage was the first performed in Korea between an American and a Korean.