KEITH C. SONG 송기주

(1900-?)

Period of study: 1925-1929

Major: Geography

Work & Experiences 

  • BS in Biology, Texas State University (1924)
  • Secretary, The Korean Club, University of Chicago (1926)
  • Rand McNally & Co. publishing company (1926)
  • Invented and commercialized first Korean-language typewriter (1933)

Keith C. Song was born in 1900 in Kangsŏ, North P’yŏngan Province. He graduated from Yonhi College and departed for study abroad in the US in 1921. Keith C. Song received a BS in Biology from Texas State University in 1924 and arrived at the University of Chicago to study geography the following year. Song also worked at the University on the production and design of maps. He was the first individual to render the map of Korea in three-dimensions using Western techniques of raised-relief mapping. During his time studying at the University, Keith C. Song maintained active roles in various student organizations; he served as Secretary of the University of Chicago’s Korean Club, as sports commissioner of the Chicago Student Union he participated directly in soccer matches, and was the Chairman of Publication for the 1929 Mid-Western Conference of the Korean Student Federation of North America.

While working at the Rand McNally & Co. in 1926, Keith C. Song invented the first practical Korean typewriter and in 1929, he remodeled the Underwood Portable Typewriter and developed a style of typewriter to be operated on the principle of fast, continuous, horizontal writing. Thus Keith C. Song is generally considered to be the first individual to develop a Korean typewriter for commercial use. He returned to Korea in 1934 and started a company named Songil Sanghoe to continue his typewriter business. News of his return to Korea and Korean typewriter development appeared in feature stories published by the prominent newspapers Tonga ilbo, Chosŏn ilbo, and Sinhan minbo. However due the typewriter’s high price and the prohibition of Korean-language education under Japanese colonial rule, Song’s business failed to fully attain success. Keith C. Song’s typewriter is now kept at the National Hangeul Museum, and it has been designated as both the oldest Korean typewriter and a nationally registered cultural asset. 

Keith C. Song continued to develop typewriters and maps until the outbreak of the Korean War, soon after which on September 17, 1950 he was kidnapped by the North Korean People’s Army. Nothing is known about what happened to Keith C. Song following his disappearance.