A Visit to the Frances Carpenter and Frank G. Carpenter Archives at the Smith College - Young Library in Northampton, MA and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Name of Award
Spring 2019 APDC Grant
Date Awarded
5-10-2019
Department/School
Library, Liberal Arts and Sciences
Recommended Citation
Dahlen, Sarah P., "A Visit to the Frances Carpenter and Frank G. Carpenter Archives at the Smith College - Young Library in Northampton, MA and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C." (2019). Internal Grant Awards. 259.
https://sophia.stkate.edu/internal_awards/259
Link to Publication Submission
Sarah Dahlen, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science, received $4,756 from the APDC Grant fund to travel to the Frances Carpenter and Frank Carpenter’s archives at Smith College and the Library of Congress, where she will analyze Frances’ writings on her perceptions of Korea, Korean people, and the Korean political situation as she was writing children’s literature.
Frances Carpenter was a 20th century writer who wrote several children’s books that were partially influenced by her travels with her father, Frank Carpenter, a journalist and travel writer. Frank and Frances' trips to Korea, along with Frances' wide knowledge and continuing interest in Korea and its geography and geopolitics, possibly influenced her writing of the children’s folktale collection, Tales of a Korean Grandmother (1947). Currently, there is little scholarship on Frances Carpenter and hardly any scholarship on early Asian American children’s books, specifically early children’s literature featuring Koreans or Korean Americans. This missing gap in research requires a deeper look into the author’s life, writing inspirations, and global and political perspectives.