Picture Bride

by katherineleeahn

Lee Hee-kyung, center, poses in this undated photo with two other Korean women.
She arrived at Honolulu Harbor in October, 1912 to marry a Korean immigrant who initially left home for a sugar plantation job in Koloa, Kauai years earlier. Then an 18-year old bride, Lee Hee-kyung had never met her 26 year-old husband Kwon Do-in before, seeing him only once in a black and white photo shown by a matchmaker. Lee, a high school graduate, joined the picture brides group in the hope that she could go to college after marrying her husband-to-be. (Courtesy of Esther Kwon Arinaga)