Eighty-five years ago, there was very little “East Asian” about the East Asian Collection, and it was in fact called the “Charles W. Wason Collection on China and the Chinese.” In 2001, funds were provided to seriously embark on the development of a Korean research collection with the main focus on the history of Korean thought, the colonial period, the economic recovery after 1945, the modern independence movement, and primary historical and literary source materials. One of the undercurrents of the Wason Collection, the strong interest in architectural and mapping traditions in East Asia, is brought to the fore within the Korean Collection as well.