Scope and Content Note
The papers of Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) span the years circa 1609-1927, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1820-1860. The collection consists entirely of microfilm organized into two sets.
Set I: Library of Congress Siebold Collection reproduces originals transferred to the Manuscript Division from the State Department in 1948 as a group of “wholly miscellaneous” captured German documents. Including notes, memoranda, correspondence, writings, lists, reports, charts, illustrations, and other scientific data collected by Siebold, the papers were gathered in binders entitled “Handschriften zu von Siebold’s Werken” (Manuscripts of von Siebold’s Works). Red stamps on the individually numbered reports within the binders indicate that the material was assembled by the Japan Institute of Berlin before being expropriated by American military forces during World War II. Set I was filmed by the Library in 1983 preliminary to the transfer of the papers to Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, where the Library’s Siebold collection was united with a larger holding of Siebold papers in that institution.
Set II: Bochum Siebold Collection reproduces the Siebold papers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum after the transfer and incorporation of material formerly held by the Library of Congress. The film was received from the university in exchange for the transfer of the originals. A draft listing of its contents is available in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.
The focus of Set I: Library of Congress Siebold Collection is on Japan and the scientific data that he collected there. As a resident in Japan in the 1820s, the Bavarian-born doctor kept detailed records of its flora, fauna, geology, and meteorology. He also described its culture, history, customs, and language, and within the collection are depictions of a country not yet open to the Western world in the early-nineteenth century. Included are a meteorological report from Edo (Tokyo) and Nagasaki in 1825, a comment on the origin of the Japanese people, a Dutch-language manuscript of 1844 with Siebold’s handwritten annotations, and a list of Japanese herbs. Several items pertain to Korea and Formosa rather than Japan, and at the end of the collection is a small file of original and copied correspondence that includes letters to and from Siebold, his son Alexander, and the Japan Institute of Berlin, which purchased a Siebold letter in 1927.