Smithsonian's 1898 exhibit to spotlight origins and lingering impact of US imperialism abroad
For many Americans, the year 1898 doesn’t conjure much significance. But for those living in Cuba, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, it marks a paradigm shift – the year their nations fell under the U.S. sphere of influence, an influence that continues to this day.
While wrestling at home with post-Civil War relations and the conquest of lands once inhabited by displaced Native Americans, the U.S. moved to become an Atlantic and Pacific power by taking over Spanish territories in the Caribbean and Pacific, and annexing the Hawaiian islands.
“People think of the U.S. as a leading proponent of world freedom, but these conflicts suggest a much more complicated picture of a struggle for rights and freedom in the Jim Crow era,” said Kristin Hoganson, a history professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Issues pertaining to self-government and democracy were playing out not only within the continental U.S., but more broadly.”
An exhibit opening Friday at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., aims to highlight that pivotal period and its continuing relevance.
A historically complex moment
The exhibit, “1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions,” recognizes the 125th anniversary of a period that saw three major events with geopolitical repercussions – the War of 1898, the Philippine-American War (1899-1913) and the 1898 Congressional joint resolution to annex Hawaii.
“It’s a very complex moment historically, socially and culturally,” said Taína Caragol, the gallery’s curator of painting, sculpture and Latino art and history, who conceived the exhibit along with colleague Kate Clarke Lemay.
The exhibit, with more than 90 objects assembled from 74 international collections, features portraits, illustrations and other objects spotlighting the push for and against U.S. overseas expansion and its effect on peoples seeking political independence.
The makings of an exhibition
The exhibit began to take shape six years ago when Caragol and Lemay, who studies military history and its expression through art, chatted about their interests and came to see 1898 as a flashpoint year.
As a Puerto Rican, Caragol recognized that while for her, 1898 marked the U.S. invasion of her native country, it didn’t register for most Americans beyond passing knowledge of the slogan, “Remember the Maine” – recalling the U.S. battleship whose sinking off Cuba's coast sparked the War of 1898.
“In Puerto Rico, 1898 is a year that is spoken about every day,” Caragol said. “It’s a year that continues to define our present.”
Hawaii, a once-independent monarchy, is now a U.S. state; Guam and Puerto Rico are American territories whose citizens cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections; Cuba and the Philippines both harbor U.S. military bases.
While the exhibit includes portraits of American figures like President Theodore Roosevelt, Admiral George Dewey and Henry Cabot Lodge, it also depicts scenes and figures central to the histories of places swept up in expansion, such as Cuban writer and revolutionary José Martí, Puerto Rican poet Lola Rodríguez de Tío and Filipino nationalist José Rizal.
The exhibit also notes the Indian Wars of the 1870s-1890s, specifically the Battle of Little Big Horn, acknowledging the origins of American imperialism on the U.S. mainland.
“We wanted to make sure that we recognized that the U.S. empire started within the nation itself,” Lemay said.
'It's very present in their minds'
While assembling the exhibit, Lemay visited art collections in Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines.
“What I discovered when I visited Hawaii was a very sensitive point of view about 1898, particularly among native Hawaiians,” she said. “They are to this day fighting for Hawaiian sovereignty to be restored, so it was a complex situation for me to enter as a federal employee. It’s very present in their minds.”
The exhibit will include a painting of Queen Lili’uokalani, Hawaii’s last sovereign monarch, a work that has never before left the islands.
“The queen is an incredible loan that we were able to orchestrate through years of hard work, face time and diplomacy,” Lemay said. “There was a lot of listening and trying to make sure people knew we were there to learn from them. I don’t think most people know about the U.S. overthrow of the monarchy.”
It was a time when such policies were driven by competition with European powers and enabled by racial prejudices, inspiring domestic backlash such as the American Anti-Imperialist League, a movement formed in response to U.S. efforts to annex the Philippines, with noteworthy supporters such as Mark Twain.
With the gallery hosting two million visitors annually, Lemay and Caragol realized they had a significant platform for an exhibit they considered important at a time when conservative activists are pushing to maintain a Eurocentric perspective in school curricula.
“The exhibit reminds us that we cannot understand the world we live in today if we whitewash or otherwise censor our past,” Hoganson said.
Dig deeper:
U.S. to expand military presence in Philippines to counter China threats
Decades-long debates reignite over statehood for Guam, Puerto Rico
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US imperialism: Smithsonian exhibit to explore origins through art
