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Banners Korea hung at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair come home on 2 December

Kang Shin-wookPublished 22 September 2026Updated 21 September 20266 sources checkedEditorial policy이 글을 한국어로 읽기
Special exhibitions at the museum

Summary

Five ceremonial banners displayed in the Korean pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and kept ever since at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, go on show in Seoul from 2 December 2026 after conservation work in the United States. The National Palace Museum will show all twenty-seven of the Penn Museum's 1893 objects for the first time, alongside Korean entries to the 1900 Paris exposition. Admission is free.

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In short

  • The exhibition opens on 2 December 2026 at the National Palace Museum in Seoul. The closing date and the final title have not been announced.
  • Five ceremonial banners from the Korean pavilion at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair are shown in Korea for the first time, after conservation in the United States.
  • All twenty-seven objects the Penn Museum holds from that pavilion go on display together for the first time.
  • Korean Empire entries to the 1900 Paris exposition are shown alongside them. The museum is free; whether this exhibition charges has not been announced.
A Joseon ceremonial banner painted with a tiger on stained, faded cloth, its edges frayed.
Hogi (호기, 虎旗), one of the five banners due for conservation treatment — the only photograph of the object itself that the Korea Heritage Service has released. Photo: Korea Heritage Service, National Palace Museum of Korea · Original

In 1893 Chicago held the World's Columbian Exposition, and Joseon Korea took a pavilion at it. It was one of the first times the country presented itself to a mass Western audience on its own terms, and a good deal of what it sent never came back. Twenty-seven of those objects ended up at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, where they have been ever since. In December five of them return to Seoul.

A black-and-white view looking down over the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, white neoclassical halls lining a lagoon.
The lagoon seen from the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Not a photograph of the Korean pavilion — it is here to show the scale of the fair. Photo: William Henry Jackson, 1893 / Ball State University (Wikimedia Commons)
A contemporary lantern slide of the 60th Street entrance to the 1893 fair, visitors passing the main gate.
A lantern slide of the fair's 60th Street entrance. Again the fair itself, not the Korean pavilion. Photo: World's Columbian Exposition lantern slides / CARLI (Wikimedia Commons)

What a ceremonial banner was for

These are not flags in the national sense. Uijanggi were carried in royal processions, each one marking rank, office or auspicious meaning, and a Joseon procession was a moving diagram of the state with the banners as its labels. The processions are recorded in painted registers, which is how we know how they were arranged. A tiger banner is among the five coming back.

A glass plate photograph of the Hwaseong Wonhaeng Banchado scroll: a long procession of figures carrying banners and regalia.
The Hwaseong Wonhaeng Banchado scroll, photographed on a glass plate (reference image). Photo: National Palace Museum of Korea (e-museum) · KOGL Type 1
The Garye Banchado scroll, Changdeok 6622: a coloured painting of a royal wedding procession lined with ceremonial banners.
Garye Banchado, Changdeok 6622 (reference image). Photo: National Palace Museum of Korea (e-museum) · KOGL Type 1
The Yeongjo Wangseje Chaengnye Banchado scroll, Changdeok 6621, painted with the procession for investing a royal heir.
Yeongjo Wangseje Chaengnye Banchado, Changdeok 6621 (reference image). Photo: National Palace Museum of Korea (e-museum) · KOGL Type 1
Seonjo Daewang Hoeran-hu Sangjonho Banchado, Deoksu 5974, the figures and banners in the procession picked out in colour.
Seonjo Daewang Hoeran-hu Sangjonho Banchado, Deoksu 5974 (reference image). Photo: National Museum of Korea (e-museum) · KOGL Type 1
The Garye Banchado scroll, Changdeok 6618, its banner-bearing procession running the length of the scroll.
Garye Banchado, Changdeok 6618 — a separate object from 6622 above (reference image). Photo: National Palace Museum of Korea (e-museum) · KOGL Type 1

Why they are only being seen now

Textiles from the 1890s that have been in storage for more than a century cannot simply be hung. The banners were conserved in the United States before travelling, funded by a corporate sponsor, following a 2026 agreement between the Penn Museum and a Korean heritage trust. That is the practical reason this is happening in 2026 and not earlier.

Officials from the Korea Heritage Service and Riot Games Korea holding the signed sponsorship agreement at LoL Park in Seoul.
The Korea Heritage Service–Riot Games sponsorship signing at LoL Park, Seoul, on 2 December 2025. Not the conservation work itself — it shows who is paying for it. Photo: Korea Heritage Service · KOGL Type 1 · Original

Twenty-seven is not the total Korea sent

The figure refers to what the Penn Museum holds, not to the size of the 1893 Korean pavilion. How much Korea exhibited in Chicago altogether, and where the rest of it went, is a separate and much less settled question.

The 1900 Paris half

Seven years after Chicago, the Korean Empire took a pavilion at the Paris Exposition Universelle — a more deliberate exercise, by a state that had declared itself an empire in 1897 and was using the exposition circuit to say so. Showing the two together turns the exhibition from a homecoming into an argument about how a small country presented itself to the world while losing control of its own position in it.

A page of the French newspaper Le Petit Journal carrying a colour illustration of the Korean pavilion at the 1900 Paris Exposition.
The Korean pavilion at the 1900 Exposition Universelle on a page of Le Petit Journal. Released under KOGL Type 4, which forbids commercial use and alteration. Photo: Daegu Modern History Museum (e-museum)

Visiting

  • The museum stands beside Gyeongbokgung, at exit 5 of Gyeongbokgung Station on Line 3. You do not need a palace ticket to enter it.
  • It is free, and open 9:30am to 5:30pm, with Saturdays and the last Wednesday of each month running to 9:00pm.
  • It closes on the last Monday of each month — not every Monday — plus 1 January, Seollal and Chuseok.
  • Whether this particular exhibition is ticketed or booked had not been announced at the time of writing.
The National Palace Museum of Korea seen from outside, beside the Gyeongbokgung wall.
The National Palace Museum of Korea, where the exhibition will be shown (photographed in 2019). Photo: AnbyG / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Frequently asked questions

Q. When does the exhibition open?
On 2 December 2026 at the National Palace Museum in Seoul. No closing date has been announced yet, and neither has the final exhibition title — the museum has been using 'World Exposition' as a working name.
Q. What exactly is coming back?
Five ceremonial banners, including a tiger banner, that hung in the Korean pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and have been held at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia since. They have been conserved in the United States before travelling.
Q. Did Korea only send twenty-seven objects to Chicago?
No. Twenty-seven is the number the Penn Museum holds from that pavilion, all of which go on show together for the first time. It is not a count of what Korea exhibited in 1893.
Q. How much does it cost?
The National Palace Museum is free until it announces otherwise, and its permanent galleries need no booking. Whether this special exhibition carries its own charge had not been announced when this was written.

Sources

  1. Official notice (Korean)
  2. Official page (Korean)
  3. Official page (Korean)
  4. Official page (Korean)
  5. Official page (Korean)
  6. Official page (Korean)
Official notice (Korean)

Written in our own words from the sources above, never copied from them, and every date and price checked against at least two pages. The originals are in Korean. Spotted a mistake? Ask for a correction.

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