author
Robert Wilson Shufeldt
1822–1895
A U.S. Navy officer and diplomat, he is best remembered for negotiating the 1882 treaty that opened formal relations between Korea and the United States. His long career also took him through naval service, merchant marine work, and surveying projects tied to plans for an isthmian canal.
1 Audiobook
The American Navy and Liberia An Address before the American Colonization Society, January 18, 1876
by Robert Wilson Shufeldt
About the author
Born in Red Hook, New York, in 1822, he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in the late 1830s and built a career that stretched across much of the 19th century. Over the years he served at sea and ashore, and his professional life also included time in the merchant marine and in surveying work connected with proposed canal routes across Central America.
He is most often remembered as a diplomat. In 1882, while serving as a naval officer, he negotiated the treaty between the United States and Korea that became known as the Shufeldt Treaty, the first treaty Korea signed with a Western nation. That achievement gave him a lasting place in both American naval history and the history of Korea's opening to foreign relations.
Shufeldt retired with the rank of rear admiral and died in 1895. His papers and later historical studies suggest a figure whose career mixed travel, diplomacy, and public service, making him an interesting subject for listeners drawn to maritime history and 19th-century international affairs.