BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: 1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions

DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: 1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions:

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Description of Pictures: 1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions
April 28, 2023 – February 25, 2024
On the 125th anniversary of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Philippine War, 1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions is the first exhibition to examine this pivotal period through the lens of portraiture and visual culture. The year 1898 witnessed the United States become an empire with overseas territories, and by placing portraits of U.S. expansionists in dialogue with portraits of those who dissented. This exhibition revisits this important period of history through multifaceted viewpoints. With more than 90 artworks from collections in Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, Spain, and the United States, 1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions illuminates the complications and consequences of the Spanish-American War (1898), the Congressional Joint Resolution to annex Hawai‘i (July 1898), and the Philippine-American War (1899–1913).
1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions is curated by Taína Caragol, curator of painting and sculpture and Latino art and history, and Kate Clarke Lemay, historian, with Carolina Maestre, Latino curatorial assistant. The exhibition is accompanied by a major multi-author catalogue entitled 1898: Visual Culture and U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean and the Pacific, co-published by Princeton University Press.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. 1898_230427_001.JPG: 1898 US Imperial Visions and Revisions
2. 1898_230427_013.JPG: 1898: US Imperial Visions and Revisions Curatorial Statement
3. 1898_230427_027.JPG: 1898: US Imperial Visions and Revisions
4. 1898_230427_029.JPG: Sea Power Many U.S. policy makers believed in the theory of sea power, or the ability to access and control the seas for economic and military gain. Yet achieving sea power was easier said than done. Following the Civil War (1861–65), the U.S. Navy languished, and in 1886, it maintained only thirty-eight active ships. Spurred by the financial crisis following the Panic of 1893, however, Congress and the executive branch instituted an aggressive shipbuilding policy, aiming to bolster the economy through overseas trade. Between 1897 and 1898, the U.S. Navy built eighty-eight warships, bringing the total to an impressive fleet of 160 vessels, ranging from new battleships and fast torpedo boats to antiquated ironclads and wooden cruisers. Before creating this superior naval force, the United States would have had little capacity to wage an overseas war against a major imperial power. However, during the War of 1898, this new naval power ensured its decisive victories against Spain.
5. 1898_230427_034.JPG: Entry of North Americans into Guánica Bay After the Spanish surrendered in Manila and Santiago de Cuba, the U.S. military launched a campaign in Puerto Rico. General Nelson Miles (pictured nearby) planned to disembark in the eastern town of Fajardo but changed his strategy, perhaps to surprise the Spanish forces. At daybreak on July 25, 1898, the USS Gloucester steamed through the southern bay of Guánica, firing over the sleepy town. The USS Massachusetts, Columbia, Dixie, and Yale followed, with 3,415 troops. Possibly based on a black-and-white photograph, this painting uses a bird’s-eye view to heighten the menacing lines of the heavily armed steel vessels. Smaller boats assist disembarking troops while soldiers set up camp on the sandy shores of the Barrio Carenero. Despite this ominous portrayal, U.S. forces encountered scant Spanish resistance in Guánica and the south of Puerto Rico, where discontent against Spain ran high. In less than three weeks, the United States occupied the island. Unidentified artist Before 1950 Watercolor on canvas 99.1 × 149.9 cm (39 × 59 in.) Collection of Aldarondo and López-Bras, LLC, Attorneys at Law
6. 1898_230427_060.JPG: Admiral George Dewey (1837–1917) On May 1, 1898, the first shots of the War of 1898 rang out under the command of Commodore George Dewey. Six U.S. war ships stationed in Hong Kong, known as the Asiatic Squadron, destroyed the Spanish flotilla harbored in Manila Bay while suffering few casualties of its own. After the Battle of Manila Bay, Dewey became a much-heralded celebrity and was promoted to admiral. From 1899 until his death in 1917, he held a powerful leadership position as president of the General Board of the Navy Department, which crafted naval policy. Charles Schwab was president of Carnegie Steel Company in 1900, when he commissioned the French portraitist Théobald Chartran to paint Dewey and his wife, Mildred Hazen Dewey, in an homage to U.S. Naval Power. Schwab’s portrait commissions may be seen as one way in which the industrialist retained his influence on the U.S. Navy— and the millions of dollars spent on steel to trans- form its fleets into armored warships. Théobald Chartran (1849–1907) 1900 Oil on canvas 125.7 × 87.3 cm (49 1/2 × 34 3/8 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; bequest of Frederick McLean Bugher
7. 1898_230427_066.JPG: Battle of Manila Bay, May 1, 1898 (Batalla en la Bahía de Manila, 1 de mayo del 1898) On February 25, 1898, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt sent a telegram to Commodore George Dewey, ordering him to ready ships in Hong Kong. After the United States declared war on Spain in April, Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron, comprised of six steel-clad vessels, departed for the Philippines. On May 1, Dewey’s ships fired on Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón’s seven unarmored ships, which completely destroyed the Spanish fleet. Ildefonso Sanz y Doménech, a Spanish medical officer aboard the cruiser Isla de Luzón, witnessed the first U.S. victory of the war with Spain and later recorded the battle in a series of oil paintings. Against a backdrop of battered Spanish vessels, Sanz y Doménech shows the USS Olympia leading the USS Baltimore, Raleigh, Concord, Petrel, and Boston in line of battle. Ildefonso Sanz y Doménech (1863–1937) 1899 Oil on canvas 99.1 × 200.7 cm (39 × 79 in.) Courtesy of the Army and Navy Club Library Trust, Washington, D.C. Audio file
8. 1898_230427_071.JPG: President William McKinley (1843–1901) In this painting, President William McKinley grasps a map that reads, “Isla de Puerto Rico.” The document is dated July 25, 1898, the day United States troops invaded Puerto Rico during the War of 1898. The eagle-topped column, inkwell, and pen on the table suggest a new chapter in U.S. history to be written by McKinley. The preeminent artist Francisco Oller y Cestero is known for tropical still lifes, landscapes, and portraits of intellectuals that convey Puerto Rican identity. Having served as a painter of the Spanish Court in the 1870s, he gained a similar status under the new U.S. colonial government after 1898. Here, he portrays McKinley at a pivotal moment, when the United States transformed itself into an overseas empire. By claiming Spanish provincias de ultramar, or overseas provinces, in the Caribbean and the Pacific as their own, the United States altered the futures of those abroad—and at home. Francisco Oller y Cestero (1833–1917) 1898 Oil on canvas 147.3 × 83.8 cm (58 × 33 in.) Collection of Dr. Eduardo Pérez and family
9. 1898_230427_088.JPG: Prelude to Empire From the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies, territorial expansion was key to the formation of the United States. The gains made during the MexicanAmerican War (1846–48) extended the country’s boundaries from coast to coast. As the United States grew, the establishment of new territories and states displaced Native American nations and Native lands through treaties—but also through coercive means, purchase, and war. The Indian Wars of the 1870s became training grounds for U.S. military personnel involved in the War of 1898 and the Philippine-American War. Twenty-six of the thirty generals who served in the Philippines between 1898 and 1902 had some military experience in the West during the campaigns against Native Americans. U.S. governance in the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico was modeled on policies designed to restrict or strip away Native American rights. Powerful politicians believed that seizing territories overseas would transform the country into a world leader. In 1898, after decades of AngloAmerican presence in Hawai‘i, and as Cuba waged its last War of Independence, naval policy makers and legislators pushed for U.S. expansion into the Caribbean and the Pacific.
10. 1898_230427_093.JPG: James Monroe (1758–1831) James Monroe was the fifth president of the United States, serving two terms (1817–25). He shared Thomas Jefferson’s belief that territorial growth would lead to the political consolidation of the United States. Following the model of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Monroe worked closely with his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, to convince Spain to sell Florida to the United States in 1819. Monroe’s most consequential legacy was his message to Congress on December 2, 1823, named decades later, the Monroe Doctrine. Written during the wars of independence of Latin America against Spain (1809–26), it declared U.S. opposition to further European colonialism in the Americas and signaled the United States’ intention to become the dominant power in the region. In 1898, the Monroe Doctrine served as justification for expansionists to oust Spain from the Caribbean. However, anti-expansionists relied on the Doctrine’s anticolonial language to decry the occupation of foreign lands. Chester Harding (1792–1866) 1829 Oil on canvas 76.2 × 63.5 cm (30 × 25 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of John L. and Ann Beal Sanders in honor of their children, Tracy Elizabeth Sanders Justus, Jane Nesbit Sanders, and William Hardy Sanders
11. 1898_230427_097.JPG: Tatanka Iyotanka (Sitting Bull) (c. 1831–1890) Sitting Bull (Hunkpapa Lakota) was one of many Native leaders who resisted westward U.S expansion in the 1860s and 1870s. Lakota nations were affected during this period. In 1868, they signed the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, which recognized the Black Hills as Lakota territory. In a violation of the treaty, the U.S. Army invaded the territory in 1876, which, along with their attempt to force all Lakota people to live on a reservation, ignited warfare. After the Battle of Greasy Grass (the Battle of Little Bighorn) on June 25, 1876, the U.S. Army, led by Nelson A. Miles (right), pursued the Lakota who had followed Sitting Bull into Canada. In 1881, famine forced Sitting Bull to surrender. Miles would later lead the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico in the War of 1898. This photograph was taken while Sitting Bull was imprisoned for almost two years at Fort Randall. Attributed to William R. Cross (1839–1907), Copyrighted by Bailey, Dix, and Mead (active 1880s) 1882 Albumen silver print 12.2 × 9.1 cm (4 13/16 × 3 9/16 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
12. 1898_230427_109.JPG: Battle of Greasy Grass (Battle of Little Bighorn) In 1876, thousands of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho gathered in a village along the banks of the Greasy Grass River in present-day Montana. That year, on June 25, Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer led the Seventh Cavalry in an attack against the village. Together with approximately two thousand Sioux, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other leaders resisted or fought Custer and his men, inflicting a stunning defeat on the U.S. Army, who would not experience a loss this devastating until the Balangiga conflict in the Philippines in 1901. This muslin painting was made by Amos Bad Heart Bull (Oglála Lakota), also known as Waŋblí Wapȟáha (Eagle Bonnet), and it complements Oglála oral history traditions. Bad Heart Bull used strong outlines with overlap- ping figures to convey depth and offer a distant view of sixty individual warring figures. The repetition of the human figure also conveys the Native Americans’ relentless combat defense. Amos Bad Heart Bull (1869–1913) c. 1900–1910 Paint on muslin 89 × 216 cm (35 × 85 in.) Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
13. 1898_230427_124.JPG: Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924) Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge envisioned the United States as a world leader. He believed that enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, which opposed European colonialism in the Americas, was critical to maintaining the United States’ “rightful supremacy in the Western Hemisphere.” Embracing the ideas of naval theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan, Lodge advocated for the U.S. Navy’s modernization and for securing overseas ports as coaling stations and commercial outposts. Like his close friend and political ally Theodore Roosevelt, Lodge regarded Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hawai‘i as desirable outposts. After the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, Lodge vigorously supported the war against Spain, recognizing it as an opportunity to gain geopolitical power and overseas territories. Later, he would advocate for the construction of the Panama Canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and consolidate U.S. power in the Americas. John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) 1890 Oil on canvas 127 × 84.5 cm (50 × 33 1/4 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Honorable Henry Cabot Lodge
14. 1898_230427_136.JPG: Nelson A. Miles (1839–1925) Prior to planning and leading the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico during the War of 1898, Nelson Appleton Miles had served in the U.S. Civil War (1861–65) and the Indian Wars of the 1870s and 1880s. He led campaigns against Native Americans, including those defeating Geronimo (Chiricahua Apache) and Chief Joseph (Nez Perce). After the Battle of Greasy Grass in 1876, Miles pursued the Lakota into Canada. When they returned to the U.S. in 1881 and surrendered, he captured Sitting Bull. As Miles sailed along the southern coast of Puerto Rico in 1898, the sight of the U.S. ships reminded of him of his experiences fighting American Indians. Later, in 1901, he recalled, “One familiar with the western plains of a quarter of a century ago might well have been reminded of a pack of large gray wolves cautiously and noiselessly moving in the shades of night, or the dim light that ushers in the dawn, upon their prey.” David Francis Barry (1854–1934) c. 1895 Albumen silver print 48 × 39.8 cm (18 7/8 × 15 11/16 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
15. 1898_230427_141.JPG: Spanish Figures of the Spanish-American War The nineteenth century in Spain was marked by political instability. This pro-U.S. broadside presents the political and military leadership of Spain and its remaining overseas provinces of Cuba and the Philippines as fractured. Around the central portrait of U.S. General Nelson Miles, the medallion-framed photographs portray Queen María Cristina, Regent of Spain (1858–1929); her son, King Alfonso XIII (1886–1941); Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, Prime Minister (1825–1903); Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, Spanish Minister in the United States from 1892 to 1898 (1851–1904); Valeriano Weyler (1838–1930), Governor General of Cuba between 1896 and 1897; and Basilio Agustín y Dávila (1840–1910), Governor General of the Philippines in 1898; Don Carlos VII, Duke of Madrid (1848–1909), who had been a claimant to the Spanish throne since 1868, symbolizes Spanish disunion. This page, from an unknown periodical, exemplifies the ways in which the U.S. publishing industry satisfied the public demand for information about “the enemy” and military campaigns in faraway lands. Franklin and Co. c. 1898 Offset lithograph 36.2 × 27.6 cm (14 ¼ × 10 7/8 in.) Private collection
16. 1898_230427_146.JPG: Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) As Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1897 to 1898, Theodore Roosevelt supervised the building of twenty-six new steel ships. After the explosion of the USS Maine, Roosevelt wrote: “If we will not fight for the blowing up of the MAINE... we are no longer fit to hold up our heads among the nations of earth.” Roosevelt became second-in-command of the First Volunteer Cavalry, known as the “Rough Riders,” in the Cuban campaign of the war. This portrait, by Charles Dana Gibson, demonstrates how Roosevelt fashioned his own image during the war. Instead of wearing an Army-issued uniform, he ordered one from Brooks Brothers, a high-end menswear store. This illustration accompanied his published memoir as a lieutenant colonel of “The Rough Riders” in the January 1899 issue of Scribner’s. Roosevelt’s fame served his political aspirations. President William McKinley named him as his running mate ahead of the 1900 presidential election. Charles Dana Gibson (1867–1944) 1898 Graphite and conté crayon on paper 44.8 × 30.8 cm (17 5/8 × 12 1/8 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
17. 1898_230427_158.JPG: Building a Battleship, The Maine On January 25, 1898, the battleship USS Maine arrived in Havana’s waters. Its mission was to protect U.S. citizens who were threatened by the riots related to the ongoing Cuban War of Independence (1895–98). The ship was at anchor in Havana Harbor until it mysteriously exploded and sank on February 15, 1898. Approximately 260 U.S. sailors died in the accident, which was likely caused by erupting furnaces. Nevertheless, many in the United States blamed Spanish aggression. This painting, by Carlton Theodore Chapman, depicts the boat in drydock during its refurbishment, with its red, antifouling paint gleaming. Constructed in 1888 and commissioned in 1895, the Maine was among the first armored vessels of the “new” U.S. Navy. Chapman may have meant this painting to be a visual record of the navy’s modernization, but it also functions as a portrait of U.S. naval power. Carlton T. Chapman (1860–1925) 1888–1895 Oil on canvas 52.1 × 64.8 cm (20 1/2 × 25 1/2 in.) New-York Historical Society; gift of Mrs. Carlton T. Chapman
18. 1898_230427_183.JPG: King David Kalākaua (1836–1891) Born in Honolulu and raised in the court of King Kamehameha III, David Kalākaua was elected king of Hawai‘i in 1874. His reign was marked by the political and economic rise of white foreigners, including the descendants of the New England missionaries who had arrived in the 1820s. Straddling the worlds of Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiians, and the increasingly powerful Anglo- Americans in Hawai‘i, Kalākaua cultivated inter- national diplomatic relations to strengthen his kingdom. This broadside documents Kalākaua’s trip to Washington, D.C., shortly after he assumed the throne. With this visit, Kalākaua met with President Ulysses S. Grant and laid the groundwork for a treaty of reciprocity that would allow Anglo-American sugar planters in Hawai‘i to export their product to the United States without tariffs. Approved a year later, the treaty fostered the boom of the Hawaiian sugar industry. Subsequently, the archipelago’s thriving economy heightened its overall appeal for U.S. annexation. Unidentified artist, after Bradley & Rulofson 1875 Engraving 36 × 23.6 cm (14 3/16 × 9 5/16 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; purchased through generous contributions to the Victor Proetz Memorial Fund
19. 1898_230427_189.JPG: Republic or Empire? On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor, claiming the lives of more than 260 sailors. Many U.S. newspapers rushed to blame the tragedy on Spain. The headline of the World asked, “Maine Explosion Caused by Bomb or Torpedo?” while the New York Journal declared, “Destruction of the Warship Maine Was the Work of An Enemy.” “Remember the Maine!” became a rallying cry for war, ignoring those who dissented. A U.S. naval board of inquiry determined that a Spanish mine had caused the explosion, and on April 25, 1898, the United States declared war on Spain. After a ceasefire in August, the United States began to negotiate the conditions of the peace treaty. A national debate ensued around the country’s proposal to annex Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, all of which were Spanish colonies. Those who objected to annexation believed that it would turn the republic into an empire. The Anti-Imperialist League emerged as a leading voice of dissent. Some members stood for the rights of people overseas, whereas others feared “racial mixing” would degrade “the Anglo-Saxon race.” These debates extended to the annexation of Hawai‘i and the United States’ further military engagement in the Philippines, after it refused to recognize Filipino independence.
20. 1898_230427_195.JPG: Jane Addams (1860–1935) The social reformer Jane Addams gave her first speech against imperialism on April 30, 1899, when she declared, “For good or ill we suddenly find ourselves bound to an international situation.... Do we mean to democratize the situation?” Addams argued that the United States was responsible to help everyone flourish through democratic means and pointed out that colonialism challenged the nation’s founding ideals of liberty, democracy, and freedom. “National events determine our ideals, as much as our ideals determine national events,” she said. Addams’ pacifist efforts throughout her life culminated in her winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. This portrait of Addams was made from life in Dublin, New Hampshire, and offers psychological insight through its rendering of Addams’ dignified, serene manner and her stern expression. Addams, however, detested the portrait, calling it one of a “long line of dismal failures” of portraits made of her. George de Forest Brush (1855–1941) 1906 Oil on canvas 62.9 × 45.1 cm (24 3/4 × 17 3/4 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; partial gift of Mrs. Nancy Pierce York and Mrs. Grace Pierce Forbes
21. 1898_230427_213.JPG: “Spain Guilty!” Soon after the explosion of the USS Maine, newspapers in the United States crafted bold headlines that blamed the ship’s destruction on a Spanish mine. This example, from March 25, 1898, appeared in the New York Journal, whose publisher was William Randolph Hearst. While a naval board of inquiry was unable to confirm Spanish involvement in the attack, the press helped rally popular support for war. The New York Journal had recently congratulated itself for promoting “journalism of action,” a new genre that sought to stimulate readership by participating in social and political causes. However, not all were convinced by this creed. The term “yellow journalism” first appeared in the New York Press to condemn sensationalism and distortion of information within the New York Journal and the New York World, published by Hearst’s rival, Joseph Pulitzer. A negative term, it is still used today to criticize journalistic misconduct. New York Journal’s front page, March 25, 1898 1898 74.9 × 59.7 cm (29 1/2 × 23 1/2") Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
22. 1898_230427_217.JPG: W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) One of the most important intellectuals at the turn of the nineteenth century, W. E. B. Du Bois studied the question of race in the United States. An anti- imperialist, he strongly objected to the United States retaining control over the Philippines. By 1903, the Philippine-American War had officially ended, but Filipino resistance continued through 1913 in the southern, predominantly Muslim island of Mindanao. In his writing, Du Bois reflected on the mainstream idea that for African Americans, “only hope lies in emigration beyond the borders of the United States.” At the time, Du Bois instead concluded, “nothing has more effectually made this program seem hopeless than the recent course of the United States toward weaker and darker peoples in the West Indies, Hawaii, and the Philippines,” placing the War of 1898 into post-Reconstruction debates around race. James E. Purdy (1859–1933) 1907 Gelatin silver print 14.2 × 9.9 cm (5 9/16 × 3 7/8 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
23. 1898_230427_220.JPG: Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) (1835–1910) Under the pen name Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens had become one of this country’s favorite satiric writers by 1873, when he published an article in the New York Tribune that opposed an early U.S. attempt to annex Hawai‘i. Later, after witnessing the exploitative nature of colonialism on a trip he made to a handful of British colonies in 1895, he adopted a sharper political stance and attacked imperialism internationally. Twain initially supported the United States’ war with Spain as a humane gesture to liberate Cuba, but his outlook soured upon reading the Treaty of Paris, where the United States took possession of the Philippines and suppressed its fight for independence. Twain subsequently became a figurehead of the American Anti-Imperialist League, which rejected the imposition of U.S. rule into foreign countries as contradicting the United States’ founding principles. In 1900, he wrote, “I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.” John White Alexander (1856–1915) 1912 or 1913 Oil on canvas 192.4 x 92.1 cm (75 3/4 x 36 1/4 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
24. 1898_230427_226.JPG: Moorfield Storey (1845–1929) On June 15, 1898, in Faneuil Hall, Boston, the civil rights attorney Moorfield Storey proclaimed, “A war begun to win the Cubans the right to govern themselves should not be made an excuse for extending our sway over other alien peoples. The fundamental principles of our government are at stake.” Opponents of expansionism had gathered with him, alarmed that the War of 1898 might become one of conquest. Underscoring their clamor, on that same day the United States reached a Joint Resolution to annex Hawai‘i as a military necessity. In November 1898, activists launched the Anti- Imperialist League (AIL), which campaigned across the country and reached a membership of thirty thousand people. The AIL decried territorial expansion, arguing that it was against U.S. democratic principles. Storey served as president of the AIL from 1905 until 1921 and as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1909 until 1929. John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) 1917 Charcoal on paper 63 × 47.8 cm (24 13/16 × 18 13/16 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; partial gift of John Moorfield Store
25. 1898_230427_233.JPG: Afro-American Historical Family Record This broadside is both a personal genealogical chart and a pictorial history of African American advancement. Symbols of national government, vignettes of an antebellum slave auction, cotton picking, and under-resourced schools on the left are contrasted with postwar scenes of free communities, industrial jobs, and prosperous schools on the right. The portraits of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, educator Lucy C. Laney, and lawyer Judson Lyons, grouped with Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, highlight the national symbols of human rights and civil rights for African Americans. The two scenes at the bottom show the African American Ninth and Tenth Cavalries and the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Colored Infantries as they crucially assist the Rough Riders in the key Cuban battles of the War of 1898. These images make a declarative statement for African American honor and belonging to the nation. James M. Vickroy (1847–1913), Historical Publishing Company (active c. 1899) 1899 Chromolithograph on paper 68.3 x 53.2cm (26 7/8 x 20 15/16 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
26. 1898_230427_236.JPG: Theophilus Gould Steward (1843–1924) In 1898, the prominent educator and clergyman Theophilus Gould Steward was a chaplain serving with the U.S. Twenty-Fifth Regiment. Steward commemorated the service of this African American regiment by authoring this book. Although some African American soldiers saw similarities between their own struggle for civil rights and that of Filipinos, Steward viewed military service as a means to argue for full citizenship. Steward was stationed in the Philippines in 1900. During his service there, he was appointed superintendent of schools in the central island of Luzon. Frontispiece of The Colored Regulars in the United States Army 1904 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
27. 1898_230427_243.JPG: Benjamin Tillman (1847–1918) A Democratic senator for South Carolina during the War of 1898, Benjamin Tillman was one of the most vocal and powerful members of a substantial racist faction of the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL). He helped engineer the disenfranchisement of African Americans in his state through gerrymandering and championed violent tactics of voter suppression against Black people. As a member of the AIL, he appealed in a speech to his allies, stating, “We understand and realize what it is to have two races side by side that cannot mix or mingle without deterioration and injury to both and the ultimate destruction of the civilization of the higher.” The presence of men like Tillman in the AIL led many African Americans who opposed the War of 1898 to establish their own anti-imperialist organizations, such as the Colored National Anti-Imperialistic League. Unidentified artist Date unknown Oil on canvas Frame: 101.6 × 88.9 cm (40 × 35 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
28. 1898_230427_252.JPG: Cuba Most countries in Spanish America had waged wars of independence by 1826. In Cuba, however, the powerful classes remained loyal to the Spanish Crown, who vowed to protect them and the sugar economy from a revolution like the one led by enslaved people in Haiti (1791–1804). Things changed in 1868, when the first of the three Cuban wars of independence broke out in reaction to new tariffs imposed by Spain, which had caused Cuba’s economy to falter. Social discontent and a burgeoning sense of Cuban national identity coalesced into a formidable force, culminating in the third Cuban War of Independence (1895–98). By this time, the United States had long served as the main purchaser and refiner of Cuban sugar and had vested interests in Cuba’s prosperity. In 1896, people in the United States read in horror as Spain retaliated against the Cuban rebels by “reconcentrating” tens of thousands of campesinos, or peasants, into fortified towns that were subsequently ravaged by disease and hunger The mysterious explosion and sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, was likely caused by erupting furnaces, but many in the United States blamed Spain. On April 25, war began. Assisted by Cuban rebels, the United States defeated Spain and renamed the conflict “the Spanish-American War.”
29. 1898_230427_260.JPG: Queen Lili‘uokalani (1838–1917) Here, Queen Lili‘uokalani stands next to the Hawaiian throne, with adornments that speak to her royal status and femininity. Employing a grand manner style, the artist conveyed the queen’s power as a female Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, head of state but did so without a scepter or other symbols of absolute power. Instead, the painting portrays her as head of the constitutional monarchy established by the 1852 Ke Kumukānāwai o Ko Hawai‘i Pae ‘Āina (Hawaiian Constitution), which granted universal suffrage to all men regardless of race. The queen’s purchase of this portrait in 1892, and its subsequent installation in the ‘Iolani Palace, stressed the legitimacy of the Hawaiian monarchy in the face of foreign threat. Her actions follow a long tradition of using—and sometimes subverting— Western art forms to assert Hawaiian sovereignty. Nevertheless, the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, which eventually led to the annexation of Hawai‘i as a U.S. territory in 1898. William F. Cogswell (1819 - 1903) c. 1892 Oil on canvas 243.8 × 182.9 cm (96 × 72 in.) Hawai'i State Archives
30. 1898_230427_271.JPG: Rosina Kalanikauwekiulani Ayers's "Hawaiian Coat-of-Arms" Quilt Generations of women have passed on Hawaiian quilting traditions since the early 19th century. However, after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, the design of the Coat-of Arms quilt became a powerful symbol of allegiance to the queen. This quilt was a wedding gift to Rosina Kalanikauwekiulani in 1898. She was a descendant of King Kamehameha I, who in 1810 established the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. It features four flags and, in the center, the Royal Coat of Arms. The motto reads, “HAWAII PONOI / UA MAU KE EA O KA‘AINA IKA PONO,” or “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.” Unidentified Artist 1898 Cotton, silk and wool 236.2 × 231.1 cm (93 × 91") National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution [TBC]
31. 1898_230427_284.JPG: ʻAhu ʻula (The Kalākaua Cape) King David Kalākaua may have worn or displayed this feather cloak on the royal throne, as the ‘ahu ‘ula had become known as the “robe of state” by the mid-nineteenth century. Kalākaua was intent on uplifting Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, culture. By the end of the century, featherwork was a powerful symbol of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The cape, which may be considered a portrait of Kalākaua, features feathers from native forest birds. Maria Kealaulaokalani Lane Ena (1862–1924) Late nineteenth century Red ʻiʻiwi feathers, yellow and black ʻōʻō feathers, and olonā fiber 76.2 × 193 cm (30 × 76 in.) Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
32. 1898_230427_290.JPG: Puerto Rico Puerto Rico and Cuba were the only remaining Spanish colonies in the Americas after 1826. Puerto Ricans bet on colonial reform, but the Spanish monarchy undercut their aspirations through strict political rule. In 1868, separatists organized an armed insurrection, El Grito de Lares (the Cry of Lares), declaring Puerto Rico independent, but Spanish authorities quelled the revolt. Thereafter, most of Puerto Rico’s political class advocated for autonomy. In 1897, their struggle bore fruit when Spain granted the island its Carta Autonómica with ample political, administrative, and economic powers. However, on July 25, 1898, the charter was rendered moot when U.S. troops landed in Guánica. In general, Puerto Ricans welcomed the change of sovereignty from Spain to the United States in 1898. They hoped for more civil liberties, economic prosperity, and modernization. Later, against the backdrop of the First World War (1914–18), the United States granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans and established a popularly elected senate. Puerto Ricans elected their first governor in 1948, and in 1952, a new constitution redefined the island’s status as Estado Libre Asociado, or Commonwealth. The constitution was hailed as a bilateral agreement between Puerto Rico and the United States, but Congress retained full legislative authority over the island—and still does to this day.
33. 1898_230427_291.JPG: Lola Rodríguez de Tió (1843–1924) Acclaimed for her poetry and her feminist stance, Lola Rodríguez de Tió, with her journalist husband, Bonocio Tió Segarra, hosted salons for separatists in their home in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. At one of these events, she authored and read the militant verses that called on her compatriots to take up arms for independence. The verses became the Puerto Rican revolutionary anthem and were reportedly sung at the 1868 Grito de Lares, the botched armed anticolonial insurrection co-organized by Ramón Emeterio Betances. Throughout her life and exile in Cuba, New York, and Venezuela, Rodríguez de Tió denounced Spanish colonial abuses and wrote about patriotic love. Her most famous verse reads: Cuba and Puerto Rico are two wings of a bird. With these words, Rodríguez de Tió embodies the intertwined anticolonial struggles of Puerto Rico and Cuba in the last decades of the nineteenth century, evoking the strong bonds between exiled revolutionaries. Fernando Díaz Mackenna (1873–1931) 1918 Oil on canvas 70.1 × 53.3 cm (27 5/8 × 21 in.) Colección del Ateneo Puertorriqueño
34. 1898_230427_296.JPG: Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (Arthur Schomburg) (1874–1938) After Spanish authorities quelled the Grito de Lares rebellion (1868) in Puerto Rico, the island’s movement for independence primarily operated in New York City. As a hub for political exiles from Cuba and Puerto Rico, New York was home to organizations of Antillean solidarity. In April 1892, on the heels of Martí’s establishment (also in New York) of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano, the Afro- Puerto Rican typesetter Arturo Schomburg helped Afro-Puerto Rican Rosendo Rodríguez and the Afro- Cuban Rafael Serra in founding the political organization Las Dos Antillas. Schomburg became the secretary to the organization that vowed “to assist in the independence of Cuba and Puerto Rico” through financial contributions and donations of weapons. Schomburg’s early experience in envisioning an antiracist and anticolonial political future for Cuba and Puerto Rico was formative in his career as a scholar of the African diaspora. His vast library laid the foundation for New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Unidentified photographer 1896 Gelatin silver print Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library Audio file
35. 1898_230427_304.JPG: Eugenio María de Hostos (1839–1903) Eugenio María de Hostos, a native of Puerto Rico, studied law and sociology in Spain but grew frustrated by the Spanish government’s failure to reform its colonial policies. In 1869, he moved to New York and joined Antillean independence circles. He also traveled through South America, spreading his anti- colonial ideas. In Santo Domingo, Hostos collaborated with the exiled Ramón Emeterio Betances on developing the Confederación Antillana, a federation that sought to advance Puerto Rican and Cuban independence and protect the two islands, along with the Dominican Republic and Haiti, from foreign intervention. As the War of 1898 broke out, Hostos founded the Liga de Patriotas Puertorriqueños (League of Puerto Rican Patriots) and met with President McKinley to demand Puerto Rican participation in political decisions. In an 1899 interview with the Washington Post, Hostos declared, “I hope history will not say that Porto Rico was treated like a dog by America. Such treatment would be contrary to your history and your institutions.” Francisco Oller y Cestero (1833–1917) 1903 Oil on wood 57.8 × 39.1 cm (22 3/4 × 15 3/8 in.) Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico
36. 1898_230427_309.JPG: Hacienda La Fortuna Commissioned by Catalan José Gallart as a portrait of his plantation, this painting simultaneously reveals the limitations and the potential of the sugar industry in late nineteenth-century Puerto Rico. Depicted from left to right are the quarters for formerly enslaved persons, the house of the hacendado, or planter, and the sugar mill with its towering smokestack. Laborers guide cane-loaded oxen carts to the ramp, where others direct the stalks to the mill to make molasses. The lethargic atmosphere points to the recent decline of the Puerto Rican sugar industry. Factors included the global fall of sugar prices, the island's abolition of slavery in 1873, and the industry's technological lag, as compared to Cuba. Located in Ponce, La Fortuna was a "central mill" that processed its own cane and that of nearby plantations. For the United States, seizing Puerto Rico represented an opportunity to expand its sugar industry into the island. Francisco Oller y Cestero (1833-1917) Oil on canvas, 1885 Brooklyn Museum; gift of Lilla Brown in memory of her husband, John W. Brown, by exchange
37. 1898_230427_321.JPG: Americans disembarking in Ponce, July 27, 1898 After the U.S. landing in Guánica on July 25, 1898, U.S. troops progressed east to the southern port city of Ponce, the island’s politically progressive hub and economic capital. Painted by Catalan artist Manuel Cuyàs Agulló, this luminous port scene presents a drastically different atmosphere compared to the menacing mood of Entry of North Americans into Guánica Bay (on view nearby). By juxtaposing the island’s bustling activity in the foreground with U.S. war ships floating over placid waters in the background, Cuyàs Agulló captured the cautious optimism felt by many Puerto Ricans as they witnessed the arrival of the U.S. forces. The painting is based on a photograph that was prob- ably taken by the Puerto Rico-born Frederic Ballell Maymí. An engineer by training (and Cuyás Agullò’s brother-in-law), Ballell Maymí lived in the Ponce neighborhood of La Playa. Manuel Cuyàs Agulló (active c. 1850–1900) 1898 Oil on canvas 59.8 × 99.2 cm (23 9/16 × 39 1/16 in.) Museo de Arte de Ponce The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.; gift of José and Mary Jane Fernández Audio file
38. 1898_230427_335.JPG: Luis Muñoz Rivera (1859–1916) Luis Muñoz Rivera was a leading voice of Puerto Rico’s Autonomist Party, which sought self-governance under Spanish rule before 1898. After the U.S. occupation, he passionately objected to the 1900 Foraker Act, which established a temporary civil government with U.S.-appointed functionaries and little local participation. “The inventors of this labyrinth find pleasure in repeating that we are not prepared [for self-government],” he declared. In 1904, Muñoz Rivera founded the Partido Unión de Puerto Rico, which supported Puerto Rico’s control over local affairs and won consecutive elections for the next twenty years. In 1911, he became resident commissioner of Puerto Rico, the island’s non-voting delegate in Washington, D.C. He continued to advocate for increased political freedom and equality for Puerto Ricans until his death. This portrait of Muñoz Rivera, against the backdrop of the U.S Capitol, was commissioned as a funerary homage by the Insular Police Corps, a division he helped establish. Fernando Díaz Mackenna (1873–1931) 1917 Oil on canvas 152.4 × 124.5 cm (60 × 49 in.) Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña
39. 1898_230427_340.JPG: William H. Hunt and His Cabinet The Foraker Act of April 12, 1900, installed the first civilian government under U.S. rule in Puerto Rico. Section 18 of the Act established an executive council comprising eleven presidentially appointed members. Out of those eleven members, six had to be from the United States, and the remaining five were to be from Puerto Rico. This photograph shows the executive council under the administration of the first civil governor, Charles H. Allen, who served from May 1, 1900, through September 15, 1900. The picture was presumably taken around June 28, when the council met for the first time at the executive mansion, La Fortaleza. William H. Hunt, standing on the right, was elected president of the council and eventually succeeded Allen as civil governor. The five Puerto Rican members of the council included Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón, Manuel Camuñas, José Celso Barbosa, Andrés Crosas, and José de Diego. Unidentified photographer Reproduction of photograph from 1901–1904 National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
40. 1898_230427_346.JPG: Searchlight on Harbor Entrance, Santiago de Cuba In this nocturnal scene, Winslow Homer, known for his paintings of the sea’s power in the 1890s, depicts the U.S. Navy’s North Atlantic Fleet’s hunt of the Spanish Squadron. Spanish ships had retreated into Santiago Bay on May 27, 1898, and subsequently were trapped by the U.S. naval blockade. The viewpoint from San Pedro de la Roca—still under Spanish control—encompasses a guard tower, a crenelated wall, and two cannons. X-ray technology reveals that Homer initially included a Spanish soldier to the left of the guard tower, but he painted this figure out. U.S. ships, out- fitted with two searchlights and positioned outside of the picture plane, cast two beams into the night sky and onto the coastline, looking for Spanish ships. The focus on the navy’s innovative searchlight also demonstrates Homer’s lifelong interest in technology. On July 3, the Spanish attempted a daring escape, but the U.S. Navy sunk every vessel in the squadron. Winslow Homer (1836–1910) 1902 Oil on canvas 77.5 × 128.3 cm (30 1/2 × 50 1/2 in.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art; gift of George A. Hearn, 1906 Audio file
41. 1898_230427_355.JPG: Leonard Wood (1860–1927) Upon earning a medal of honor in 1885 for his service in the campaign against Apache leader Geronimo, Leonard Wood began his military ascent. But it was the War of 1898 that propelled his meteoric rise and that of his friend, Theodore Roosevelt. Together, they founded the First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, popularly known as the Rough Riders. Their success led to Wood’s appointment as the military governor of Cuba in 1899. Although Wood ruled with an iron fist and disenfranchised most Cubans, he initiated important projects, including a successful campaign to eradicate yellow fever. In 1902, Cubans protested in front of Wood’s residence, the governor’s palace, after the United States introduced the Platt Amendment. The amendment stipulated that the end of the U.S. military government was contingent on the ongoing U.S. oversight of Cuban affairs. In 1903, John Singer Sargent painted this portrait of Wood in uniform, visually conveying his authority. Later that year, Wood became military governor of Moro Province in the Philippines. John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) 1903 Oil on canvas 76.5 × 63.8 cm (30 1/8 × 25 1/8 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
42. 1898_230427_361.JPG: Antonio Maceo (1845–1896) Known as “The Bronze Titan,” Antonio Maceo was among the Cuban independence movement’s most popular military leaders. An Afro-descendant from Santiago de Cuba, he joined the cause for independence in 1868 as an infantry soldier and quickly rose to the rank of general, leading successful campaigns in Santiago and Guantánamo. He fought for the abolition of slavery and the end of racial privileging famously declaring, “No whites nor blacks, but only Cubans.” After being exiled by the Spanish, Maceo returned to Cuba in April 1895, during the third War of Independence. In October of that year, he launched an unprecedented invasion into the western provinces, leading operations in Pinar del Río. In late 1896, while attempting to join Máximo Gómez’s forces in Havana province, Maceo’s men were ambushed by the Spanish, and he was captured and killed on December 7. To this day, Maceo remains a vital symbol of Cuban nationalism. J. A. Suárez y Ca. 1895 Albumen silver print Biblioteca Nacional de España
43. 1898_230427_366.JPG: Cuban Revolutionaries Under Spain’s colonial regime, dissidents were exiled. This forced them to organize and plot the revolution from abroad. In 1891, the exiled General Antonio Maceo (1848–1896) established himself in Costa Rica after its government granted him approximately twenty-four thousand acres to build a tobacco colony on the peninsula of Nicoya. Populated by exiled Cuban veterans and families, the site was intended as a safe haven for revolutionary activity. This portrait pictures Maceo in the center back row with other Cuban generals—including the Afro-descendants Flor Crombet (1851–1895), on his left, and Agustín Cebreco (1855–1924), on his right. Maceo’s dog, "Cuba Libre," rests in the foreground. Rather than wearing military uniforms, the generals wear formal clothes, presenting themselves as men of distinction who are equally at ease in the city as they are at war. With his chin up and his face turned to the right, Maceo conveys a sense of command over the group. Unidentified artist 1891 Photograph Biblioteca Nacional de España
44. 1898_230427_373.JPG: Clara Barton (1821–1912) Clara Barton led the campaign to establish the American Red Cross and became its founding president in 1881. She guided the organization’s effort in Cuba in 1898, arriving in Siboney on July 1, and working alongside the U.S. Army through early September. Tensions ensued because the American Red Cross, an independent organization, did not consider itself subject to military orders. When the Spanish surrendered that December, Barton stayed in Santiago to aid both soldiers and the civilian population. In the 1950s, the city of Santiago placed a commemorative bust of Barton in La Alameda Park to honor her service. Underwood & Underwood (active 1880 - c. 1950) 1904 Gelatin silver prints (stereograph) 8.7 × 15.3 cm (3 7/16 × 6 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
45. 1898_230427_377.JPG: Lederle's Aseptic Anti-Typhoid Typhoid was a menacing threat to U.S. forces during the war. A study of six recruit departure camps showed that of the 107,973 soldiers, 20,738 would contract typhoid and 1,590 would die from the disease. While the cause and prevention for typhoid was known by 1898, lack of sanitary enforcement in military encampments devastated troops. National outrage and increased public awareness fueled military health reforms. After approval by a U.S. Army medical board in 1908, a typhoid vaccination was introduced as a voluntary measure in the U.S Army. 1910 Glass, metal, paper label 8.9 × 2.9 cm (3 1/2 × 1 1/8 in.) National Museum of Health and Medicine
46. 1898_230427_381.JPG: Carlos Finlay (1833–1915) Yellow fever decimated soldiers during the U.S. military occupation in Cuba (1898–1902), pressuring the U.S. Army to identify how it was transmitted. Cuban physician Carlos Finlay proposed the mosquito vector theory, which posited that yellow fever was spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Initially skeptical, the Yellow Fever Commission eventually tested and proved his hypothesis. As a result, Cuba’s military governor, Brigadier General Leonard Wood, gave orders to dry out mosquito breeding grounds, swiftly eradicating the disease by the end of 1901. Unidentified photographer 1900 Gelatin silver print 17 × 12 cm (6 5/8 × 4 3/4 in.) University of Miami Libraries, Cuban Heritage Collection
47. 1898_230427_385.JPG: Peasant and Spanish soldier After the Cuban Liberation Army invaded the western part of the island and set fire to sugar plantations during the winter of 1895–96, the Spanish government responded by appointing General Valeriano Weyler as Cuba's governor. Through a policy known as reconcentración, Weyler ordered civilians to evacuate the countryside and move into fortified towns. The goal was to prevent the rural pacíficos, or non- fighting population, from assisting the mambises, or rebels, in their fight against the Spanish Army. Out of the 300,000 people forced to relocate, tens of thousands of reconcentrados died of disease or starvation. The artist Armando García Menocal, who served in the Cuban Liberation Army, centered this painting on an interaction between a Spanish soldier on horseback and a Cuban pacífico. Is the pacífico providing intelligence or erroneous information to the soldier? The quietude of this scene betrays the tension between these two sectors of Cuban society at a time of war. Armando García Menocal (1863–1942) 1902 Oil on canvas 43.2 × 64.8 cm (17 × 25 1/2 in.) Collection of Emilio and Sylvia M. Ortiz
48. 1898_230427_393.JPG: Guerra de Cuba During the Ten Years War (1868–78), the Spanish built a line of fortifications to protect the western sugar regions of Cuba. Known as la trocha, these barriers confined Cuban revolutionaries to the eastern province of Oriente. Two decades later, Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo crossed this threshold while fighting the third War of Cuban Independence, and the war spread across the island. By then Gómez’s military strategy relied not on combat, but on setting fire to the property of peninsulares (Spaniards born on the Iberian peninsula) and criollos (Spanish descendants born in Cuba), who collaborated with the Spanish regime. This Spanish military photograph features the leaders of the Spanish Regiment of Tarragona who participated in the battle of Potrero de Saratoga (Paddock of Saratoga) in June 1896. General Gómez’s troops’ western-to-eastern crossing of la trocha provoked this encounter. Both armies claimed victory in this confrontation, one of the war’s bloodiest battles. Unidentified photographer 1896 15.2 × 22.9 cm (6 × 9 in.) Biblioteca Nacional de España
49. 1898_230427_397.JPG: Ingenio con carruaje (Sugar mill with carriage) Decades before the United States intervened in the third War of Cuban Independence (1895–98), the sugar market defined U.S.-Cuba relations. By the 1840s, nearly half of Cuban trade, including sugar and sugar machinery, depended directly on U.S. markets and manufacturers. By 1865, the U.S. firm Moses Taylor & Co., led by Moses Taylor and Percy Pyne, handled roughly one-fifth of the entire sugar trade between Cuba and the United States. During the Ten Year’s War (1868–78), Taylor and Pyne supported Cuban insurgents with armaments and supplies, hoping to end Spanish rule and its limitations on the sugar industry. This painting, by Cuban artist Armando García Menocal, depicts bourgeois travelers in a horse-drawn carriage with an active sugar plantation in the background. The work was previously owned by Percy Pyne’s son, Percy Rivington Pyne II, and titled Ingenio con carroza (Sugar mill with chariot). Armando García Menocal (1863–1942) 1894 Oil on canvas 43.2 × 64.8 cm (17 × 25 1/2 in.) Collection of Emilio and Sylvia M. Ortiz
50. 1898_230427_407.JPG: Cuba’s Heroes and Their Flag In May 1896, New York’s Madison Square Garden served as the site for the Grand Cuban-American Fair. “Cuba appreciates sympathy—She must have assistance” was the motto used by the event’s organizers, all members of the Cuban Junta. The Junta comprised Cubans living in the United States who supported Cuba’s independence from Spain. Through fairs, public addresses, carnivals, and theat- rical performances, they aimed to raise sympathy and funds from the U.S. public to support Cuban combatants in the third War of Cuban Independence (1895–98). This souvenir linen handkerchief centers on the political leader of the Cuban independence movement, José Martí (1853–1895). His portrait is surrounded by those of military leaders in the independence struggle: Máximo Gómez (1836–1905), Antonio Maceo (1845–1896), and Calixto García (1839–1898), along with Salvador Cisneros (1818–1914), president of the Cuban Republic in Arms Unidentified artist 1896 Lithograph on linen 45.7 × 45.7 cm (18 × 18 in.) Collection of Emilio Cueto
51. 1898_230427_416.JPG: osé Martí (1853–1895) The poet and thinker José Martí grew up in Cuba during a time when enslaved labor was critical to its plantation-based economy and when civil rights were strictly limited by the Spanish colonial government. Martí was first imprisoned as a teenager for publishing La patria libre (The free homeland), a newspaper supporting the Ten Years’ War (1868–78). Subsequently, he advanced his anticolonial ideals through extensive writing, becoming a towering Latin American intellectual. Martí spent his last fifteen years exiled in New York City, where he established the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary Party) in 1892. Martí called for a final “Necessary War” against Spain to liberate Cuba and combat the legacy of slavery: racial inequality. He aspired to create “a republic for all.” Martí died in battle in May 1895 during Cuba’s third War of Independence (1895–98). Miguel Díaz Salinero created multiple posthumous paintings of the “Apostle of Cuban independence,” helping cement his likeness in Cuban art and history. Miguel Díaz Salinero (1874–1943) c. 1942 Oil on canvas 130.2 × 84.5 cm (51 1/4 × 33 1/4 in.) Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Fernandez
52. 1898_230427_422.JPG: Yellow fever chart for Dr. Jesse W. Lazear The leading cause of death for soldiers on all sides of the War of 1898 was not combat but diseases such as typhoid and yellow fever. As a result, the United States Army formed research organizations, such as the Yellow Fever Commission, to study infectious diseases. Physician and commission member Jesse W. Lazear deliberately contracted yellow fever to test Carlos Finlay’s theory that the disease was spread by mosquitos. The chart tracks Lazear’s temperatures from September 19 until his death on September 25, 1900. 1900 Ink on paper 26.5 × 40.5 cm (10 7/16 × 15 15/16 in.) Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia
53. 1898_230427_425.JPG: Group of U.S. Army female nurses on duty at First Reserve Hospital, Manila, Philippines The Army Medical Department of the United States was prepared to support a prewar force of 25,000 regulars but was overwhelmed with the wartime influx of 270,000 soldiers. In response, the U.S. Army began relying on outside organizations, like the Daughters of the American Revolution, to recruit nurses to work under contract. Due to the unrelenting need for nurses and friction with partner organizations, however, the U.S. Army established a permanent Army Nurse Corps in 1901. This photograph, from 1898, shows women who would go on to join the Corps. Unidentified photographer 1898 Albumen photograph on cardboard mount 33 x 38.1 cm (13 x 15 in.) National Museum of Health and Medicine
54. 1898_230427_430.JPG: Hawai‘i Queen Lili‘uokalani (1838–1917) became Hawai‘i’s first female monarch on January 29, 1891, and was respected by Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiians, and foreign heads-of-state alike. However, she inherited a throne undermined by powerful Anglo-American settlers, whose business interests influenced local Hawaiian affairs. Seeking to reestablish the primacy of the Hawaiian monarchy that had ruled since Kamehameha I had united the archipelago in 1810, the Queen introduced a new Constitution on January 14, 1893. Three days later, her opponents—assisted by the U.S. military— staged a coup, imprisoning the Queen and eventually forcing her to abdicate. The “Republic of Hawaii” was established on July 4, 1894. On July 7, 1898, Congress approved a joint resolution to annex Hawai‘i, marking the culmination of more than a century of foreign threats to the archipelago, including those by the United States, as well as France, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan. By statute, the “Republic of Hawaii” was renamed the “Territory of Hawaii” on April 30, 1900, and eventually became a state in 1959. To this day, many Kānaka Maoli consider the “joint resolution for annexation” illegal, and they question the legitimacy of Hawaiian statehood, deeming it an occupation.
55. 1898_230427_436.JPG: Harriet Bradford Tiffany Stewart In 1823, Harriet Bradford Tiffany Stewart and her husband, Charles, traveled to Hawai‘i with the second company of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). The arrival of these early U.S. missionaries in Hawai‘i coincided with a gradual social transition in Hawaiian society, including shifts in religion and land regulation. King Kamehameha II, known as Liholiho (1797–1824), welcomed them, and with his support, the missionaries orchestrated the conversion of Hawaiians to Christianity. By the 1830s, the missionaries’ influence on the ali‘i, or Hawaiian nobility, was such that businessmen could not lease land without the support of those associated with the ABCFM. The missionaries’ influence and that of their descendants continued to build throughout the nineteenth century, eventually leading to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. This portrait features the hills of Lake Otsego bordering Cooperstown, New York in the background. Unidentified Artist 19th century Oil on canvas Stretcher: 92.1 × 71.1 × 2.9 cm (36 1/4 × 28 × 1 1/8") Frame: 112.2 × 92.1 × 10.2 cm (44 3/16 × 36 1/4 × 4") National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; given in honor of Stewart W. Bowers
56. 1898_230427_439.JPG: Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen In writing this book, Queen Lili‘uokalani chronicled her upbringing and the events of her overthrow, and she responded to the 1894 Morgan Report, which attempted to justify the coup against her. The cover illustration includes two kāhili, or the symbolic staff of the state. Made from feathers, kāhili are important emblems of Hawaiian royalty with direct ties to the tradition of featherwork as well as ritual. A floral lei, topped with a crown, encircles “Liliu,” the queen’s birthname. Queen Liliʻuokalani (1838–1917) Published by Lee and Shepard 1898 20.3 × 14 × 4.4 cm (8 × 5 1/2 × 1 3/4 in.) Hawai‘i State Archives
57. 1898_230427_444.JPG: Lorrin Thurston (1858–1931) The grandson of missionaries who had arrived in Hawai‘i in 1820, Lorrin Thurston aggressively asserted himself in Hawaiian politics. In 1886, he was elected to the Hawaiian legislature as a representative of the islands of Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i. In early 1887, Thurston formed the Hawaiian League, banding it together with a white male militia, the Honolulu Rifles, to undermine King Kalākaua. Threatening force, these men coerced Kalākaua to sign an amendment to the 1864 Constitution of Hawai‘i, known as the Bayonet Constitution (1887). Essentially, the new constitution shifted power from Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiians, to the U.S., British, and German colonists, who totaled less than five percent of Hawai‘i’s population. The Bayonet Constitution gave the cabinet more power than the king, and Thurston was named minister of the interior in the king’s new cabinet. He used the power of this position to mastermind the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. Unidentified photographer 1895 Albumen silver print 14 × 8.9 cm (5 1/2 × 3 1/2 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
58. 1898_230427_453.JPG: Committee of Safety In January 1893, Lorrin Thurston organized the “Committee of Safety,” or the Committee of Annexation. Modelling themselves after the American Revolution era’s network of committees (authorized by the Continental Congress governed until state governments were formally established), the Committee of Safety claimed power to govern during the moment of the Queen asserting her power as a constitutional monarch. A coup d’état displaced Queen Lili‘uokalani from her throne on January 17, 1893, and installed a provisional government. Choosing her words carefully, Queen Lili‘uokalani relinquished her power not to the counterfeit “provisional government” led by Thurston but to the “superior force of the United States of America.” By positioning the matter as one concerning the United States and international law, the queen stalled the completion of the overthrow. Her brilliant diplomacy led President Grover Cleveland to order an official investigation of the rebellion, yet Congress voted not to intervene on behalf of Queen Lili‘uokalani. Ultimately, Lili‘uokalani was forced to retreat to her estate in Waikiki and later to her private residence of Washington Place in Honolulu. The new government did not allow her to return to the throne to lead the Hawaiian Kingdom as its sovereign. Unidentified Artist Reproduction after the original 1893 photographs Gelatin silver print Print size TBD by D&P Original approx: 20.3 × 25.4 cm (8 × 10") Courtesy of the Hawaii State Archives [TBC]
59. 1898_230427_458.JPG: Petition against the Annexation of Hawaiʻi In 1897, recently inaugurated President William McKinley submitted a treaty for Hawaiian annexation to the U.S. Senate. Those loyal to Queen Lili‘uokalani did not stand idle. In response, three organizations called for collective action to protest the overthrow. For instance, the Hui Hawaiʻi Aloha ‘Āina, led by lawyer and former minister of foreign affairs Joseph Nāwahı̄, organized petition drives. In December 1897, delegates of the organization brought a 556-page petition with 21,269 signatures to Washington, D.C., where Senator George Hoar of Massachusetts read it on the Senate floor. By February of 1898, the treaty still lacked the required majority and was successfully blocked. Hawaiian scholar Noenoe K. Silva uncovered these documents in the National Archives in the 1990s. The petitions continue to play a key role today, particularly in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Hawaiian Patriotic League 1897 Ink on paper 35.6 x 21.4 cm (14 x 8 7/16 in.) National Archives and Records Administration, Center for Legislative Archives, Washington, D.C. Audio file
60. 1898_230427_460.JPG: The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures The War of 1898 and the subsequent Philippine- American War were the first U.S. military conflicts to be filmed. The Edison Manufacturing Company and the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company produced the films in Orange, New Jersey. While some films involve actual footage taken in the United States, Cuba, and the Philippines, others were staged as reenactments of battles or marching soldiers. Such is the case with this film, which depicts Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders charging toward the camera. The “Rough Riders” nickname was given to the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, which saw combat in Cuba under Roosevelt’s leadership. The U.S. press widely covered their role in the battle at Las Guásimas and San Juan Hill in eastern Cuba, cementing their popularity among the U.S. public. Edison Manufacturing Company 1898 Black-and-white film Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
61. 1898_230427_475.JPG: Petition against the Annexation of Hawaiʻi In 1897, recently inaugurated President William McKinley submitted a treaty for Hawaiian annexa- tion to the U.S. Senate. Those loyal to Queen Lili‘uokalani did not stand idle. In response, three organizations called for collective action to protest the overthrow. For instance, the Hui Hawaiʻi Aloha ‘Āina, led by lawyer and former minister of foreign affairs Joseph Nāwahı̄, organized petition drives. In December 1897, delegates of the organization brought a 556-page petition with 21,269 signatures to Washington, D.C., where Senator George Hoar of Massachusetts read it on the Senate floor. By Feb- ruary of 1898, the treaty still lacked the required majority and was successfully blocked. Hawaiian scholar Noenoe K. Silva uncovered these documents in the National Archives in the 1990s. The petitions continue to play a key role today, particularly in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Hawaiian Patriotic League 1897 Ink on paper 35.6 x 21.4 cm (14 x 8 7/16 in.) National Archives and Records Administration, Center for Legislative Archives, Washington, D.C. Audio file
62. 1898_230427_480.JPG: Pearl Harbor: This Property Is Not for Sale A towering Uncle Sam holds a pickaxe and shovel while surveying Pearl Harbor dotted with “Not for Sale” signs. Published in the Hawaiian Gazette on June 7, 1901, this cartoon comments on a legal dispute between sugar planters and the U.S. government, which in 1901 had appropriated funds to establish a naval base in the mouth of the Pearl River. However, owners of the adjacent lands refused to name a selling price. The accompanying article predicted, “There is no doubt from the high figures at which the land is held that the Government will have to resort to condemnation proceedings to secure the station desired.” Indeed, the land was acquired by condemnation, a process by which private property is taken for public use. In 1902, U.S. engineers began excavating a channel in Pearl Harbor, turning it into one of the world’s leading naval bases. Ralph O. Yardley (1878–1961) 1901 Ink on paper 48.3 × 38.1 cm (19 × 15 in.) Hawai‘i State Archives
63. 1898_230427_486.JPG: “How about This” On July 4, 1894, the “Republic of Hawaii” was proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole, its recently appointed president. The United States immediately recognized the Republic, and Great Britain and other nations followed suit. This new government created a five-dollar poll tax, a financial requirement that consequently blocked many Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiians, from voting. It also imposed language restrictions targeting Japanese and Chinese residents of the archipelago. In 1896, the Republican National Convention platform included this statement supporting the annexation of Hawai‘i: “The Hawaiian Islands should be controlled by the United States, and no foreign powers should be permitted to interfere with them.” This caricature featuring Uncle Sam shows him holding a book entitled Monroe Doctrine and closely reading the Republican platform. Dole waits outside the gate with a “Deed gift to Uncle Sam of the Hawaiian Islands.” Hawai‘i was annexed by joint resolution of Congress on July 7, 1898. Grant E. Hamilton (1862–1926) Published in Judge magazine, 1898 33.3 × 50.5 cm (13 1/8 × 19 7/8 in.) University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa Library, Honolulu
64. 1898_230427_489.JPG: The Philippines Filipinos had been rebelling against Spanish rule for two years when the United States defeated the Spanish flotilla in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Many Filipinos, particularly residents of the island of Luzon, officially declared their independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, and continued their uprising against the Spanish with great success. When the U.S. Army launched a campaign in the Philippines in July, Filipinos believed that the United States would assist them in their war of independence. The Spanish, who had been reluctant to surrender to their “colonial” subjects, surrendered to the United States in a “mock” battle on August 13, 1898. In the peace treaty after the War of 1898, Spain sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. As in the case of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and CHamoru (the Indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, including Guam), Filipinos were not represented in the peace negotiations. Consequently, beginning in 1899, Filipinos waged a war of resistance against the United States, known as the Philippine-American War. Although the United States claimed victory in 1902, fighting persisted through the 1913 Battle of Bud Bagsak, with hostile engagements continuing even after that date. The Philippines did not attain independence until July 4, 1946.
65. 1898_230427_493.JPG: Filipino Revolutionaries In 1892, Andrés Bonifacio founded the Katipunan in Manila after uniting urban clerks and artisans to resist the Spanish. By late August 1896, thousands of men and women were ready to revolt against Spain. When an informer tipped off the Spanish about the Katipunan, the rebellion began. By early 1897, however, the Philippine Revolution had fallen apart because of divisions within the Katipunan. Although the Tejeros Convention held on March 22, 1897, aimed to unite the factions, ultimately Emilio Aguinaldo unseated Bonifacio, and his followers voted to replace the Katipunan with a Revolutionary Government. Bonifacio was executed on May 10, 1897. Later that year, Aguinaldo and his supporters retreated from Cavite Province to the remote location of Biak-na-Bato in Bulacan Province. There, Aguinaldo signed a truce with the Spanish in which he accepted amnesty, 800,000 Spanish pesetas, and the promise of Spanish reform. Here, Aguinaldo poses with his supporters during his exile in Hong Kong (1897–98). Unidentified artist 1898 Archivo de Indias, Seville
66. 1898_230427_498.JPG: Sketch of the fortifications in Noveleta near Cavite Nuevo and Dalahican In August 1896, the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish began. Although those fighting under Andrés Bonifacio in Manila did not fare well, Filipinos to the south did better. Emilio Aguinaldo’s soldiers had seized the town of Kawit, in Cavite Province, south of Manila, as well as the town of Noveleta. Meanwhile, Ramón Blanco, then the Spanish governor of the Philippines, was busy organizing the thousands of Spanish soldiers sent to reinforce his ranks, which had numbered fewer than seven thousand men. On November 7, 1896, the Spanish launched a twin attack, known as the Battle of Binakayan-Dalahican, against both Cavite el Viejo and Noveleta. This map, a sketch of the defensive tactics devised by Aguinaldo, shows the river in Cavite Nuevo and Dalahican. Aguinaldo’s forces won the first significant victory against 22,000 Spanish soldiers led by Blanco. The Battle of Binakayan-Dalahican established Aguinaldo as the leader of the rebellion. 1897 Graphite and ink on paper Archivo General de Indias, Seville
67. 1898_230427_505.JPG: José Rizal (1861–1896) The ophthalmologist and writer José Rizal was the leader of the Propaganda Movement in the Philippines, which began in the 1880s. Rizal and other Filipino intellectuals consulted seventeenth-century texts to gain a better understanding of pre-Spanish era Filipino religion and history. This pro-Filipino campaign aimed to make the Philippines a fully recognized, autonomous overseas province of Spain, contributing art, ideas, and leaders. The movement mostly took place in Spain and only lasted through the early 1890s, but it was an important line of resistance against Spanish authorities’ depictions of Filipinos as “tribally fragmented,” incapable of self-government, and racially inferior. In 1887, Rizal published Noli me tangere (Touch me not), criticizing Spanish rule and corrupt religious officials. Nine years later, he was executed by the Spanish for rebellion, sedition and conspiracy. Juan Luna made this portrait as a tribute to his friend and in admiration of his courage. Juan Luna (1857–1899) 1891 Oil on canvas 65.4 × 49.5 cm (25 3/4 × 19 1/2 in.) Collection of Luis Antonio and Cecile Gutierrez
68. 1898_230427_510.JPG: In the Phillippines – A Bayonet Rush of United States Troops (Soldiers’s Charge) Conservative estimates of Filipino war deaths number 250,000. However, to this day, the death toll of the Philippine-American War remains debated due to the lack of comprehensive records. War’s violence is on full view here. This painting features U.S. soldiers charging over a hill and firing their rifles as Filipino soldiers fall across the foreground. While the scene erases much of the Filipinos’ humanity by caricaturing their faces, the U.S. “Boys in Blue” are shown as heroic warriors. The composition emphasizes some of the racist visual tropes that were used in the nineteenth century. At the top, on the hill, white soldiers expertly point and shoot their weapons. At the bottom, Filipinos perish. Remington, who worked as an artist-reporter in Cuba during January 1897 and the summer of 1898, never set foot in the Philippines. Frederic Remington (1861–1909) 1899 Oil on canvas 81.3 x 114.3 cm (32 x 45 in.) Courtesy of the Center of Military History, Museum Division, U.S. Army
69. 1898_230427_520.JPG: Apolinario Mabini (1864–1903) A lawyer and strategist, Apolinario Mabini was crucial in the legal and constitutional framing of Emilio Aguinaldo’s revolutionary government. Mabini had first allied with José Rizal, whose La Liga Filipina (Filipino league) promoted gradual reform and non-violence. However, by 1897, Mabini came to support the Philippine Revolution, and in 1898, he became one of Aguinaldo’s closest advisors. Mabini believed that only a strong, centralized national government backed by a robust army could secure independence, and he refused to negotiate with the United States. Although he died in the cholera epidemic of 1903, Mabini was commemorated as a leader of Filipino nationalism, and his funeral was one of the largest Filipinos had ever seen. This posthumous portrait, by Fabián de la Rosa y Cueto, was most likely made to create a pantheon of Filipino nationalists during the first years of the U.S. colonial era. Portraiture served as a tool in this effort. Fabian de la Rosa y Cueto (1869–1937) 1911 Oil on canvas Frame: 86 × 74.5 cm (33 7/8 × 29 5/16 in.) National Library of the Philippines
70. 1898_230427_523.JPG: milio Aguinaldo (1869–1964) After leading the Philippine Revolution (1896–97), Emilio Aguinaldo signed a truce on December 14, 1897, accepting amnesty, 800,000 Spanish pesetas (just over $5,000 in 2023 standards), and the promise of Spanish reform. Exiled in Hong Kong, he returned to Cavite on May 19, 1898, on a U.S. naval vessel. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo and his followers declared the Philippines an independent state, but the United States refused to recognize the sovereignty of the new republic. Tensions simmered until the Philippine-American War began on February 4, 1899. Aguinaldo was eventually captured, and on April 19, 1901, he issued a proclamation to the Filipinos to accept the United States as the new colonial authority. However, guerilla forces fighting in Batangas and Laguna persisted, as did those fighting in the Muslim islands of Mindanao and Sulu. Aguinaldo later collaborated with Japanese forces during World War II and helped them drive the United States out of the Philippines. Unidentified photographer 1901 Gelatin silver print 15.2 × 10.2 cm (6 × 4 in.) History Nebraska
71. 1898_230427_527.JPG: Insurgent Congress Hall, Malolos, Bulacan Province, Luzon Island. Aguinaldo in the chair on the platform The setting of this photograph is the Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan. Known as “the Malolos Church,” it was used as Emilio Aguinaldo’s residence, office, and headquarters. There, he convened the first Filipino parliament, the Malolos Congress, in September 1898. The group’s members were drawn from Aguinaldo’s supporters in Central Luzon, so it was not a representative assembly of the entire archipelago. The Treaty of Paris was signed on December 10, 1898, and Spain sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million as part of the settlement (approximately $720 million today). Aguinaldo sent Felipe Agoncillo and Juan Luna as representatives to the treaty negotiations that were to conclude the War of 1898, but the United States did not recognize the Filipino diplomats. Ignoring the treaty, Aguinaldo focused on consolidating power. Under his presidency, the Malolos Congress established the First Philippine Republic on January 22, 1899—six weeks after the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Unidentified photographer 1898 Gelatin silver print 17.8 × 22.9 cm (7 × 9 in.) Archive Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
72. 1898_230427_541.JPG: Kris with Wooden Scabbard The kris sword is from Mindanao Island and the Sulu archipelago. Captain John J. Pershing is pictured here with a kris. In 1903, Pershing gathered intelligence from forty-eight sultans and datus in Lake Lanao in Mindanao. When some of these leaders refused to give information, Pershing led punitive expeditions against them, including one that killed one hundred and twenty members of the sultan of Bacalod’s household. One of the soldiers who served under Pershing, George C. Shaw, seized this weapon in 1903. Shaw donated this kris to the Smithsonian Institution in 1922. 1903 Iron alloy, wood, twined cellulose fiber Kris: 3.5 x 16 x 72.5 cm (1 2/5 x 6 3/10 x 28 3/10 in.) Scabbard: 2.3 x 67.5 x 18 cm (9/10 x 26 ½ x 7 in.) George Shaw Collection, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History U.S. Model 1898 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle While in the Philippines, U.S. Army soldiers some- times sang a song with the refrain, “Civilize ’em with a Krag.” The Krag-Jorgensen rifle, with its superior smokeless firepower, was the most modern rifle used by the U.S. military in the War of 1898. An impressive firearm, it nonetheless had to be loaded slowly, by hand. This meant that it was best suited for deliberate, well-aimed fire. Conversely, the Spanish and Filipinos used the German-designed Mauser rifle, which could be loaded through the top of the magazine with a stripper clip, a much faster and smoother process. Ole H. J. Krag (1837–1916) 1898 125.7 × 9.5 cm (49 1/2 × 3 3/4 in.) National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
73. 1898_230427_551.JPG: Felipe Agoncillo (1859–1941) On August 7, 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo entrusted Filipino lawyer Felipe Agoncillo to travel to Washington, D.C., and secure a role in the peace negotiations on behalf of the Philippine Republic. However, President William McKinley’s office refused to welcome Agoncillo on the grounds that he did not represent a legitimate government. Agoncillo then sailed to Paris, where he hoped to meet with the commissioners negotiating the terms of the peace treaty, but he was rejected again. On December 12, 1898, Agoncillo issued the Republic’s official protest to the treaty, writing: I claim... the fulfillment of the of the solemn declaration made by the illustrious William McKinley... that, on going to war, he was not guided by any intention of territorial expansion, but only... the duty of liberating tyrannized people, and the desire to proclaim the unalienable rights of sovereignty of the countries released from the yoke of Spain. Félix Resurrección Hidalgo (1855–1913) 1899 Oil on canvas 86. 4 x 55.9 cm (34 x 22 in.) National Fine Arts Collections of the National Museum of the Philippines Audio file
74. 1898_230427_555.JPG: The Conquerors (Culebra Cut, Panama Canal) In 1903, with Theodore Roosevelt leading negotiations, the new nation of Panama granted the United States the land for a proposed canal. Linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Panama Canal ensured U.S. sea power. U.S.-directed construction for the $352 million project (around $11 billion today) began in 1904, when crews from the West Indies and other countries began carving out 100 million cubic meters of rock and soil. This painting visualizes a section of the nine-mile cut made into the Culebra Mountain and features workers, steam-powered excavating shovels, and a locomotive, as well as hydraulic rock crushers. More than 5,600 lives were lost during the canal’s construction before it was completed in 1914. The resulting Canal Zone created a divide within the Republic of Panama, as only employees of the canal, the U.S. military, and their families could reside there. The United States treated the Panama Canal Zone as an unincorporated territory until 1979. Jonas Lie (1880–1940) 1913 Oil on canvas 152.4 × 127 cm (60 × 50 in.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art; George A. Hearn Fund, 1914
75. 1898_230427_570.JPG: Guam In 1898, after three hundred years of colonization by the Spanish, the island of Guam became a U.S. territory and has remained one ever since. Part of the Mariana Islands archipelago in Micronesia, Guam is located on the seven-thousand-mile ocean route between San Francisco, California, and Manila, in the Philippines. Guam’s natural harbor made it a critical coaling station for steampowered vessels in 1898. The first of thirty-eight U.S.-appointed naval governors of Guam, Richard P. Leary, began his rule on August 7, 1898. In 1901, thirty-two island leaders petitioned the United States for civil governance and U.S. citizenship, objecting to naval rule. More than seven other petitions were organized over the years. In 1950, President Harry S. Truman signed the Organic Act of Guam, and Guam’s naval government transitioned to a civilian one, with a governor appointed by the president of the United States until 1970, when residents of Guam began electing their governor. However, given its status as an unincorporated territory of the United States, the island remains subject to the full and complete legislative authority of the U.S. Congress. Today, the United States maintains military installations in Guam, making approximately one-third of the island inaccessible to its CHamoru (the Indigenous people of the Mariana Islands) and Guamanian populations.
76. 1898_230427_573.JPG: Captain Richard P. Leary (1842–1901) For almost eight months after the United States captured and took control of Guam from the Spanish, its governance alternated between those who were loyal to Spain and those who worked with a rotating roster of U.S. naval captains. When Captain Richard Leary of the USS Yosemite arrived on August 7, 1899, he became the first official naval governor of Guam. Leary graduated in 1864 from the United States Naval Academy. As governor of Guam, Leary issued twenty-one military orders. These edicts resulted in an investigation by his superior officers, one of whom reported “the orders with regard to religion are evidently considered as a hardship and are distasteful to the majority of the people.” Leary’s appointment ended in July 1900. Unidentified photographer 1890 Photograph 14.3 x 10.3 cm (5 2/3 x 4 in.) Special Collections and Archives Department, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy
77. 1898_230427_577.JPG: Proclamation to the Inhabitants of Guam With this proclamation of 1899, Captain Richard P. Leary established U.S. government control over Guam, stressing the separation of church and state as well as submission to U.S. authority. Convinced that the people of Guam were unfit to govern themselves, Leary presided over Guam with increasing severity. Hearing word of the unfitness of Leary’s military rule, Major General Elwell S. Otis, then in charge of the campaign in the Philippines, sent Major General Joseph Wheeler to investigate the conditions of Guam. During Wheeler’s visit, Padre José Torres Palomo organized a petition to have William Edwin Safford appointed governor. Instead, Commander Seaton Shroeder replaced Leary in July 1900. Richard P. Leary (1842–1901) 1899 Ink on paper 37.3 × 21.5 cm (14 11/16 × 8 7/16 in.) Special Collections and Archives, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy
78. 1898_230427_580.JPG: The Useful Plants of the Island of Guam Lieutenant William Edwin Safford was the aide to Captain Richard Leary, Guam’s naval governor. During his year in Guam, Safford, an ethnologist, surveyed the island and its customs. For guidance on local issues, he turned to his good friend Padre José Torres Palomo. Safford published the first English text on the CHamoru language, which was dedicated to Padre Palomo. The Useful Plants of the Island of Guam covers CHamoru history and culture as well as botany. Later, Safford served as curator at the National Herbarium in Washington, D.C. William Edwin Safford (1859–1926) 1905 Government Printing Office, Washington Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Audio file
79. 1898_230427_584.JPG: General Leary's General Orders No. 4 As Guam’s naval governor, Captain Richard P. Leary authored twenty-one military orders meant to diminish Spanish influences on Guam. Some of them also greatly undermined the local culture. For example, on August 25, 1899, Leary issued General Order No. 4, prohibiting any celebration outside of the Church walls on Catholic feast days and halting the customary daily tolling of bells. In another controversial action, he removed the remaining Spanish priests because they allowed cohabitation outside of marriage and also fathered children themselves. His aide, Lieutenant William Edwin Safford (whose book on Guam is displayed nearby), objected to Leary’s expulsion of the priests. Five of Leary’s orders addressed the problems of discipline among the U.S. sailors and marines stationed in Guam, which included public drunken- ness, assaults on civilians, vandalism, and the abandonment of duty stations without authorization. Richard Phillips Leary (1842 - 1901) Reproduction of document from 1900 20.3 × 13.1 cm (8 × 5 3/16 in.) Special Collections & Archives, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy
80. 1898_230427_587.JPG: Padre José Torres Palomo (1836–1919) Born in Guam, José Torres Palomo was educated at the San Carlos Seminary in Cebu, the Philippines, and ordained into the Catholic priesthood in 1859. An important representative of Guam’s people, he was the first CHamoru Roman Catholic priest. Locals called him Pale’ Enko’, and he had a leading role in local affairs, advocating for fair rule. Fluent in six languages, he functioned as a diplomat for Guam during the transfer of colonial authority from Spain to the United States. He introduced William Safford, Guam’s first lieutenant governor, to the manak’kilo, the upper-class mestizos (people of Spanish and Indigenous descent) of Hagåtña, and assisted Safford in compiling a CHamoru dictionary. On Palomo’s fiftieth anniversary in the priesthood, Pope Pius X named him Papal Chamberlain for his efforts to keep the Catholic faith in Guam, where U.S. administrators had challenged it. He became the first CHamoru priest to receive the honor. Unidentified photographer Date unknown Photograph 11.5 x 7.3 cm (4 ½ x 2 9/10 in.) The Richard F. Taitano Micronesia Area Collection Research Center
81. 1898_230427_591.JPG: Archbishop Placide Louis Chapelle (1842–1905) In 1899, the Vatican appointed Archbishop Placide Louis Chapelle as apostolic delegate to secure the rights and property of the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines, and Guam. For U.S. territorial administrators, it was challenging to enforce the separation of church and state in societies that had experienced centuries of Catholic influence. Captain Richard P. Leary, Guam’s first official naval governor, made the controversial decision to eliminate public religious festivities and deport Spanish priests. Archbishop Chapelle protested, arguing that Leary’s orders went against the religious liberties granted in the U.S. Constitution. Consequently, Major General Elwell S. Otis appointed Major General Joseph Wheeler to inspect conditions in Guam. While Wheeler’s report did not lead to the Spanish priests’ return, Leary’s successor, Seaton Schroeder, reinstated public celebrations. Unidentified artist Date unknown Oil on canvas 88.9 × 76.2 cm (35 × 30 in.) Office of Archives and Records, Archdiocese of New Orleans
82. 1898_230427_598.JPG: Atanasio Taitano Perez (1874–1950) Atanasio Taitano Perez was one of the thirty-two signatories of the petition on display in this gallery. Having worked as a clerk and interpreter for the acting U.S. governor in 1899, he ascended to associate justice in the Guam Court of Appeals in 1916, among other positions. Perez used his public prominence to vocalize his desires for Guam’s political future. In 1925, during a visit by members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Perez stated: “The CHamorus are neither citizens nor aliensthey are truly without a country. . . . I hope that Congress will see fit to retain our appreciation and strengthen our loyalty by granting us the title we would prize above all othersCitizens of the United States.” Perez died on April 23, 1950, just a few months before President Truman signed the Organic Act of Guam, which established a civil government and granted U.S. citizenship to the CHamoru. Unidentified photographer 1900 Photograph 24 x 19 cm (9 2/5 x 7 2/5 in.) The Richard F. Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center
83. 1898_230427_606.JPG: Petition Relating to Permanent Government for the Island of Guam On December 17, 1901, the CHamoru, or the Indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, including Guam; petitioned Congress for the right to create a representational government that would replace the oversight of the U.S. Navy. The petition expresses allegiance to the United States but argues that naval rule was highly flawed. The petition requests the formation of a commission to study the needs of Guam’s people to establish institutions molded “to the American standard.” The U.S. Congress, nonetheless, disregarded the petition. Seven more petitions were submitted—in 1917, 1925, 1933, 1936, 1947, 1949, and 1950. It was not until August 1, 1950, when President Truman signed the Organic Act of Guam, that civilian government replaced naval oversight. Reproduction of document from 1902 27.9 × 21.6 cm (11 × 8 ½ in.) National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
84. 1898_230427_621.JPG: Consumer Culture In the United States, the War of 1898 inspired a vibrant market for maps, whimsical trinkets, and board games that were sold for entertainment and distributed to boost national pride. People played games in which territories and coaling stations could be conquered. While reading daily news reports, they tracked military campaigns using interactive maps. Trading cards and other novelties used portraiture to heroicize the U.S. military leaders of the war. The War of 1898 was over in a matter of months, but the production of consumer objects continued into the first decades of the twentieth century, mainly in the form of books on the “new possessions.” As time marched on, publications and other products confirmed the War of 1898 as a triumphant event in U.S. history, one reflecting U.S. military might, territorial expansion, and political power.
85. 1898_230427_623.JPG: Spanish-American War Patriotic Fan This nineteenth-century fan features portraits of U.S. military leaders of the Cuban campaign. It is an unusual example of how these figures were popularized in consumer culture. The portraits are, from left to right: Theodore Roosevelt, John C. Watson, William R. Shafter, William McKinley, Charles Dwight Sigsbee, Winfield Schley, Robley Evans, and Richmond P. Hobson. The fan is made from nine separate paper leaves that are lined with fabric and attached to wooden sticks. The paper leaves are in the shape of pansies, with embossing that imitates petals. One of the flowers features an abstracted flag of the United States on one side and a similarly abstracted flag of Cuba on the other. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, in 1899, the word “pansy” meant “a remarkable or outstanding person.” Unidentified artist 1898 Lithograph, wood, and metal 17.8 × 35.6 cm (7 × 14 in.) Private collection
86. 1898_230427_627.JPG: Strategic Map of Our War with Spain Published in late May of 1898, this map proclaims itself to be “A Birdseye view of the Great Struggle for Free Cuba.” An incongruous composite, it shows the eastern half of the United States, Spain, and all three arenas of the War of 1898: Cuba, “Porto Rico,” and the Philippine Islands in the Pacific. The cartographer resolved the challenge of including the far-away Philippine archipelago by placing it in an inset over Africa. With the war still ongoing, the map also includes a full list of the U.S. and Spanish fleets. The Spanish vessels destroyed in Manila are crossed out to emphasize the enemy’s weakness. This map was equipped with red, white, and blue pins that readers could move according to the daily news received. As if they had a war room at home, people used the map to track the progress of the military campaigns and strategize the next best moves. War Map Publishing Company 1898 Color lithograph 38.26 x 56.83 cm (15 1/16 x 22-3/8 in.) Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
87. 1898_230427_631.JPG: Goff's Historical Map of the Spanish-American War in the West Indies, 1898 Maps were among the most popular objects commercialized by the print industry during and after the War of 1898. Published in 1899, this one presents the Antilles, or the West Indies, as an arena of U.S. military victory. The southern part of Florida’s panhandle emphasizes the strategic proximity of these Caribbean islands to the United States. Cuba and, to a lesser extent, Puerto Rico are the focus of the map, which provides highly detailed information on both islands. The names of harbors, towns, and cities, as well as U.S. Navy landing points, orient the viewer. A closer look reveals descriptions of U.S. military feats, such as bombarded towns and forced surrenders. Views of the Cuban bays of Havana and Santiago, as well as Puerto Rico’s San Juan Bay, reveal the starring role of the U.S. Navy in this war. Fort Dearborn Publishing Co. 1899 Cerograph 34.9 × 47 cm (13 3/4 × 18 ½ in.) Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
88. 1898_230427_637.JPG: The Game of Naval War This naval warfare game of chance includes pieces shaped like armed cruisers. Players would spin a dial to move their vessels across the board with the objective of landing in Cuba, Puerto Rico, or the Philippines to raise the U.S. flag. The map is distorted to represent South Florida alongside Hong Kong—both ports of departure for U.S. naval forces during the war. Unidentified Maker 1898 Cardboard, paper, and wood 27.9 × 58.4 × 10.2 cm (11 × 23 × 4 in.) Collection of Emilio Cueto
89. 1898_230427_648.JPG: The Rough Riders: A Game Capitalizing on his military service to advance his political career, Theodore Roosevelt published The Rough Riders as a book in 1899. It became a best- seller and, in turn, inspired popular culture collectibles and games like this one. Even as such games brought the war closer to home, they also revealed the sense of distance between the U.S. home front and foreign battlegrounds by turning deadly warfare into child’s play. Parker Brothers 1900 Cardboard, wood, and metal Board: 25 × 51 cm (9 13/16 × 20 in.) Rare Books and Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
90. 1898_230427_657.JPG: Cuban Blockade Puzzle On April 21, 1898, four days after the United States declared war on Spain, President William McKinley ordered the Navy Department to blockade the north coast of Cuba. Later, a second blockade was sent to the southern Bay of Santiago, which became a key theater of war. In this puzzle, the pellets represent the U.S. Navy. Players are invited to dock in the Cuban bays while avoiding falling on Spanish mines. Unidentified Maker 1898 Masonite with glass, paper, cardboard, and ball bearings 7.6 × 12.7 × 5.1 cm (3 × 5 × 2 in.) Collection of Emilio Cueto
91. 1898_230427_662.JPG: Uncle Sam at War with Spain This board game, which features drawings of famous ships from the U.S. Naval fleet and the Spanish Armada, challenges players to capture the “enemy” in the ongoing War of 1898. Showcasing architectural landmarks, the game was advertised as displaying pictures “taken from correct photographs” and claimed to be “the most instructive” game on the market. Underneath the title, the box cover reads, “Let the Americans show what they would have done had they been on the Spanish War Vessels.” It therefore implies that the Spanish defeat was the result of individual failings. Rhode Island Game Company 1898 Cardboard, metal, and printed paper Board (open): 52.1 × 52.1 × 0.3 cm (20 ½ × 20 ½ × 1/8 in.) Collection of Emilio Cueto
92. 1898_230427_687.JPG: Our Islands and Their People as Seen with the Camera and Pencil This popular two-volume book sold around four hundred thousand copies. Its aim was to map out and assert the new empire and acquaint U.S. readers with the country’s “new possessions.” Puerto Rico, Hawai‘i, the Philippines, and Guam. The publication also addresses the Samoa Islands, of which the United States annexed those lying east of longitude 171 degrees in 1899. By pairing landscape and portrait photography with data and U.S. military observations, Our Islands portrayed colonial subjects as “others” in need of political instruction from the United States. José de Olivares 1899 N.D. Thompson Publishing Co. 41 × 29 cm (16 1/8 × 11 7/16 in.) Collection of Dr. Laura Katzman
93. 1898_230427_689.JPG: Codifying Empire The War of 1898 ended when the Treaty of Paris was signed by Spain and the United States on December 10, 1898. The United States gained sovereignty over Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam, and promised Cuba the right to independence after a period of military occupation. As the United States assumed control of these islands and annexed Hawai‘i, the issue of empire continued to be contested, especially in the 1900 presidential election. Theodore Roosevelt defended the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, writing in 1901 that “if white people were morally bound to abandon the Philippines, we were also morally bound to abandon Arizona to the Apaches.” His opponents argued that colonialism ran against the founding principles of the United States. Both groups, however, debated the consequences of incorporating peoples of various races, languages, religions, and cultures into the U.S. political and social systems. The 1901 Supreme Court’s decisions in the Insular Cases justified the power of Congress over the “new possessions” and the selective application of U.S. constitutional protections in lands now defined as “unincorporated territories.” The constitutionality of the Insular Cases and the colonial framework they established are still debated today.
94. 1898_230427_694.JPG: Uncle Sam’s New Class in the Art of Self-Government After the conclusion of the War of 1898, there was uncertainty as to how Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawai‘i, and Guam would be incorporated in the United States. While some politicians were eager to establish trade routes through the new territories, others feared annexing lands inhabited by peoples of various races, languages, and cultures. Expansionists argued that the United States should carry the “white man’s burden” of educating others in “the art of self-government.” These prejudiced views are revealed in this cover issue of Harper’s Weekly. In this caricature, Uncle Sam is the only adult in a classroom, while the new territories are personified as children. William Allen Rogers (1854–1931) Print reproduced in Harper’s Weekly, August 27, 1898 40.5 x 28.2 cm (15 15/16 x 11 1/8 in.) Private collection
95. 1898_230427_697.JPG: John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911) A civil rights champion, Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only dissenter in the “separate but equal” Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which ruled that racial segregation was legal. Later, in 1901, Harlan dissented in Downes v. Bidwell, which reoriented the future of U.S. territorial policy. In this case, the Supreme Court majority concluded that the trade tariffs in the Foraker Act were constitutional because Puerto Rico was not “in the United States,” and therefore it was considered “foreign in a domestic sense.” Puerto Rico was consequently designated an “unincorporated” territory, a new legal distinction crafted by the Court providing that the Constitution was not immediately applicable to the territory. In a series of concurrent cases, collectively known as the Insular Cases, this new territorial policy was also extended to the Philippines and Guam. Downes v. Bidwell continues to be the most consequential precedent in Supreme Court cases involving U.S. territorial policy. Charles D. Mosher (1829–1897) 1880 Albumen silver print 13.5 × 9.9 cm (5 5/16 × 3 7/8 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Ben Schneiderman Audio file
96. 1898_230427_701.JPG: Treaty between the United States and the Republic of Cuba Embodying the Provisions Defining Their Future Relations as Contained in the Act of Congress Approved March 2, 1901 In April 1898, some U.S. politicians, wary that the war against Spain might become a vehicle for expansionism, secured the Teller Amendment. This was a commitment from the U.S. government that it would not pursue the annexation of Cuba after the war, respecting its will for independence. Three years into the U.S. military government occupation in Cuba, U.S. Secretary of War Elihu Root devised the Platt Amendment to retain influence on the island. Presented to Congress by Senator Orville H. Platt, the amendment gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs. It also secured for the U.S. the ability to lease lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations. Although vehemently protested by Cubans, the Platt Amendment was presented to the Cuban constitutional convention as a condition for the end of the U.S. military occupation. Elihu Root (1845–1937), Orville H. Platt (1827–1905) 1901 Ink on paper 34.29 x 25.08 cm (13 1/2 x 9 7/8 in.) National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
97. 1898_230427_723.JPG: Theodore Roosevelt 1858-1919 After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt swiftly stepped into the role of commander in chief. While U.S. legislators and colonial administrators established overseas rule, Roosevelt and his administration furthered the gains of the War of 1898. They secured U.S. oversight of Cuban affairs in 1901 and declared the end to the Philippine-American War in 1902. Positioning the United States at the nexus of global trade and influence, Roosevelt's administration took on the construction of the Panama Canal. Early in 1903, John Singer Sargent traveled from Boston to paint Roosevelt's official portrait. The president's impatience frustrated Sargent. In one posing session, Sargent found the perfect composition by chance, as an irritable Roosevelt turned around to him on a flight of stairs while complaining about the artist's indecisiveness. Sargent's depiction of a towering Roosevelt, gripping the stair's newel-post, conveys the president's commanding, alert, and resolute personality. John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) Oil on canvas, 1903 White House Collection
98. 1898_230427_729.JPG: Theodore Roosevelt's Annual Message to Congress for 1904 (Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine) As the twenty-sixth president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt was uniquely positioned to turn the United States into a world power. In 1904—the same year that his government initiated the construction of the Panama Canal—he responded to the threat of European intervention in the Dominican Republic by issuing the “Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.” This proclamation revised the passive language of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which had claimed the Americas as the U.S. sphere of influence but without specifying a strategy. The Roosevelt Corollary asserted the right to actively intervene. Throughout the first decades of the twentieth century, the Corollary justified the use of U.S. military force in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, and other countries in order to secure the ideological and economic alignment of those countries with the United States. Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) 1904 Printed paper 26.67 x 18.09 cm (10 ½ x 7 1/8 in.) National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
99. 1898_230427_735.JPG: Queen Liliʻuokalani (1838–1917) After a failed uprising by Royalists in 1896, Queen Lili‘uokalani served eight months under house arrest in the ‘Iolani Palace before she was moved to a second location, Washington Place. She was granted freedom to travel within the island of O‘ahu on February 6, 1897. After serving twenty-one months of the five-year sentence, the Republic’s executive council granted her a full pardon. Lili‘uokalani soon left on the first of several trips to Washington, D.C., hoping to enlist support to restore her monarchy. In 1908, Queen Lili‘uokalani again traveled to the U.S. capital to appear before the House Committee on Claims and request that the Crown Lands of Hawai‘i be returned to her. Asserting that these lands, which had been seized by the U.S. government, previously had brought her an annual income of $50,000, she sought $200,000 as reparation. Her appeal, however, was denied. This photograph was taken at Harris & Ewing Studio in Washington, D.C., which was known for photographing the local elite. Harris & Ewing Studio (active 1905–1977) 1908 Gelatin silver print 37.4 × 28.8 cm (14 3/4 × 11 5/16 in.) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Aileen Conkey
100. 1898_230427_743.JPG: Harper’s Weekly, Inauguration Number March 4, 1901 On March 4, 1901, the day of President William McKinley’s second inauguration, Harper’s Weekly published a commemorative issue with articles on the ceremonies and celebrations. The cover highlights the themes that dominated McKinley’s first presidential term—foreign policy and industrial development. The corners feature four heraldic shields representing the lands involved in the conflicts of 1898: the Philippines, Cuba, “Porto Rico,” and “Hawaii,” with the omission of Guam. Triumphantly, a stylized bald eagle encircles its wings around the U.S. Capitol. Its talons clench four red arrows, symbols of warfare, and the four represented islands. The Capitol is lit by a blazing yellow background, a symbolic consecration of Washington, D.C.’s central role in national and international affairs. Silhouettes of industrial factories and smoking chimneys decorate the bottom of the composition. The resulting iconography of imperial and industrial might introduces a new global role for the United States. Unidentified artist 1901 39.2 × 27 cm (15 7/16 × 10 5/8 in.) Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
101. 1898_230427_750.JPG: Commissioners from Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico in Washington, D.C. Representatives from Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, ending the War of 1898. The people whose futures were at stake were not present in the negotiations. However, before the Senate ratified the Treaty on February 6, 1899, commissioners from Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico traveled to Washington, D.C., to demand participation in the process. While newspapers documented these events, their visit is seldom referenced in historical accounts. This group portrait documents their visit to the capital. Seated from left to right are Ramón Villalón Sánchez (1864–1938), from Cuba; Felipe Agoncillo (1859–1941), from the Philippines; and Eugenio María de Hostos (1839–1903) and José Julio Henna (1848–1924), both from Puerto Rico. Standing in the back, third from the right, is the Filipino artist Juan Luna (1857–1899). Despite their combined effort to inform crucial decisions, the U.S. government ignored them. Unidentified photographer 1899 Photograph 12.7 × 17.8 cm (5 × 7 in.) Eugenio María de Hostos and Eugenio Carlos de Hostos Papers, Manuscript Division Library of Congress, Cabinet of American Illustration, Washington, D.C.
102. 1898_230427_759.JPG: United States Flag Hoisted at Las Cabezas de San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 1898 The lowering of the Spanish flag and the hoisting of the U.S. flag was a ritual of ownership, signifying the transition to U.S. sovereignty. It was the clearest symbol of U.S. territorial expansion. This flag is a relic of that ritual. In the weeks surrounding the invasion of Puerto Rico, this flag was raised by the U.S. military at Las Cabezas de San Juan lighthouse on the island’s northeastern town of Fajardo. With its forty-five stars representing the number of states at the time, the flag raised the question as to whether or not Puerto Rico and other lands now under that same flag would eventually become states in the union. On April 2, 1900, reflecting on the “new possessions,” Wisconsin Senator John C. Spooner asked, “Does the Constitution follow the flag?” This notion became central to the Supreme Court’s Insular Cases as the United States defined how it would administer the new territories. Unidentified maker 1898 49.5 × 85.1 cm (19 1/2 × 33 1/2 in.) The Robert von Stolberg de Acosta Foundation
103. 1898_230518_004.JPG: Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914) In the 1880s, the naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan spearheaded his concept of sea power, or the ability to control the ocean for economic and military gain. He popularized this idea and proposed revitalizing the U.S. Navy in his important 1890 treatise, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783. Mahan argued that surplus U.S. production would require overseas markets but that the benefits would be significant for a country “seeking a new outlet for what it had to sell,” and would achieve “more employment for its people, more comfort and wealth for itself.” For economic and territorial expansion, however, a modern navy was crucial. This could only be achieved by creating a steam and steel navy that operated in large, fleet-sized units. This way, the U.S. Navy would be capable of acting on the offensive—key for seizing overseas territories and creating colonies. Ultimately, Mahan’s theory of sea power provided an intellectual justification for a war that extended from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Alexander Robertson James (1890–1946) 1945
104. 1898_230518_033.JPG: Sea Power Many U.S. policy makers believed in the theory of sea power, or the ability to access and control the seas for economic and military gain. Yet achieving sea power was easier said than done. Following the Civil War (1861–65), the U.S. Navy languished, and in 1886, it maintained only thirty-eight active ships. Spurred by the financial crisis following the Panic of 1893, however, Congress and the executive branch instituted an aggressive shipbuilding policy, aiming to bolster the economy through overseas trade. Between 1897 and 1898, the U.S. Navy built eighty-eight warships, bringing the total to an impressive fleet of 160 vessels, ranging from new battleships and fast torpedo boats to antiquated ironclads and wooden cruisers. Before creating this superior naval force, the United States would have had little capacity to wage an overseas war against a major imperial power. However, during the War of 1898, this new naval power ensured its decisive victories against Spain.
105. 1898_230518_038.JPG: Battle of Manila Bay, May 1, 1898 (Batalla en la Bahía de Manila, 1 de mayo del 1898) On February 25, 1898, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt sent a telegram to Commodore George Dewey, ordering him to ready ships in Hong Kong. After the United States declared war on Spain in April, Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron, comprised of six steel-clad vessels, departed for the Philippines. On May 1, Dewey’s ships fired on Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón’s seven unarmored ships, which completely destroyed the Spanish fleet. Ildefonso Sanz y Doménech, a Spanish medical officer aboard the cruiser Isla de Luzón, witnessed the first U.S. victory of the war with Spain and later recorded the battle in a series of oil paintings. Against a backdrop of battered Spanish vessels, Sanz y Doménech shows the USS Olympia leading the USS Baltimore, Raleigh, Concord, Petrel, and Boston in line of battle. Ildefonso Sanz y Doménech (1863–1937) 1899
106. 1898_230518_072.JPG: Prelude to Empire From the establishment of the Thirteen Colonies, territorial expansion was key to the formation of the United States. The gains made during the MexicanAmerican War (1846–48) extended the country’s boundaries from coast to coast. As the United States grew, the establishment of new territories and states displaced Native American nations and Native lands through treaties—but also through coercive means, purchase, and war. The Indian Wars of the 1870s became training grounds for U.S. military personnel involved in the War of 1898 and the Philippine-American War. Twenty-six of the thirty generals who served in the Philippines between 1898 and 1902 had some military experience in the West during the campaigns against Native Americans. U.S. governance in the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico was modeled on policies designed to restrict or strip away Native American rights. Powerful politicians believed that seizing territories overseas would transform the country into a world leader. In 1898, after decades of AngloAmerican presence in Hawai‘i, and as Cuba waged its last War of Independence, naval policy makers and legislators pushed for U.S. expansion into the Caribbean and the Pacific.
107. 1898_230518_075.JPG: Battle of Greasy Grass (Battle of Little Bighorn) In 1876, thousands of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho gathered in a village along the banks of the Greasy Grass River in present-day Montana. That year, on June 25, Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer led the Seventh Cavalry in an attack against the village. Together with approximately two thousand Sioux, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other leaders resisted or fought Custer and his men, inflicting a stunning defeat on the U.S. Army, who would not experience a loss this devastating until the Balangiga conflict in the Philippines in 1901. This muslin painting was made by Amos Bad Heart Bull (Oglála Lakota), also known as Waŋblí Wapȟáha (Eagle Bonnet), and it complements Oglála oral history traditions. Bad Heart Bull used strong outlines with overlap- ping figures to convey depth and offer a distant view of sixty individual warring figures. The repetition of the human figure also conveys the Native Americans’ relentless combat defense. Amos Bad Heart Bull (1869–1913) c. 1900–1910
108. 1898_230518_104.JPG: Republic or Empire? On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor, claiming the lives of more than 260 sailors. Many U.S. newspapers rushed to blame the tragedy on Spain. The headline of the World asked, “Maine Explosion Caused by Bomb or Torpedo?” while the New York Journal declared, “Destruction of the Warship Maine Was the Work of An Enemy.” “Remember the Maine!” became a rallying cry for war, ignoring those who dissented. A U.S. naval board of inquiry determined that a Spanish mine had caused the explosion, and on April 25, 1898, the United States declared war on Spain. After a ceasefire in August, the United States began to negotiate the conditions of the peace treaty. A national debate ensued around the country’s proposal to annex Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, all of which were Spanish colonies. Those who objected to annexation believed that it would turn the republic into an empire. The Anti-Imperialist League emerged as a leading voice of dissent. Some members stood for the rights of people overseas, whereas others feared “racial mixing” would degrade “the Anglo-Saxon race.” These debates extended to the annexation of Hawai‘i and the United States’ further military engagement in the Philippines, after it refused to recognize Filipino independence.
109. 1898_230518_108.JPG: Cuba Most countries in Spanish America had waged wars of independence by 1826. In Cuba, however, the powerful classes remained loyal to the Spanish Crown, who vowed to protect them and the sugar economy from a revolution like the one led by enslaved people in Haiti (1791–1804). Things changed in 1868, when the first of the three Cuban wars of independence broke out in reaction to new tariffs imposed by Spain, which had caused Cuba’s economy to falter. Social discontent and a burgeoning sense of Cuban national identity coalesced into a formidable force, culminating in the third Cuban War of Independence (1895–98). By this time, the United States had long served as the main purchaser and refiner of Cuban sugar and had vested interests in Cuba’s prosperity. In 1896, people in the United States read in horror as Spain retaliated against the Cuban rebels by “reconcentrating” tens of thousands of campesinos, or peasants, into fortified towns that were subsequently ravaged by disease and hunger The mysterious explosion and sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, was likely caused by erupting furnaces, but many in the United States blamed Spain. On April 25, war began. Assisted by Cuban rebels, the United States defeated Spain and renamed the conflict “the Spanish-American War.”
110. 1898_230518_112.JPG: Group of U.S. Army female nurses on duty at First Reserve Hospital, Manila, Philippines The Army Medical Department of the United States was prepared to support a prewar force of 25,000 regulars but was overwhelmed with the wartime influx of 270,000 soldiers. In response, the U.S. Army began relying on outside organizations, like the Daughters of the American Revolution, to recruit nurses to work under contract. Due to the unrelenting need for nurses and friction with partner organizations, however, the U.S. Army established a permanent Army Nurse Corps in 1901. This photograph, from 1898, shows women who would go on to join the Corps. Unidentified photographer 1898
111. 1898_230518_116.JPG: Yellow fever chart for Dr. Jesse W. Lazear The leading cause of death for soldiers on all sides of the War of 1898 was not combat but diseases such as typhoid and yellow fever. As a result, the United States Army formed research organizations, such as the Yellow Fever Commission, to study infectious diseases. Physician and commission member Jesse W. Lazear deliberately contracted yellow fever to test Carlos Finlay’s theory that the disease was spread by mosquitos. The chart tracks Lazear’s temperatures from September 19 until his death on September 25, 1900. 1900
112. 1898_230518_131.JPG: Queen Lili‘uokalani (1838–1917) Here, Queen Lili‘uokalani stands next to the Hawaiian throne, with adornments that speak to her royal status and femininity. Employing a grand manner style, the artist conveyed the queen’s power as a female Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, head of state but did so without a scepter or other symbols of absolute power. Instead, the painting portrays her as head of the constitutional monarchy established by the 1852 Ke Kumukānāwai o Ko Hawai‘i Pae ‘Āina (Hawaiian Constitution), which granted universal suffrage to all men regardless of race. The queen’s purchase of this portrait in 1892, and its subsequent installation in the ‘Iolani Palace, stressed the legitimacy of the Hawaiian monarchy in the face of foreign threat. Her actions follow a long tradition of using—and sometimes subverting— Western art forms to assert Hawaiian sovereignty. Nevertheless, the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, which eventually led to the annexation of Hawai‘i as a U.S. territory in 1898. William F. Cogswell (1819 - 1903) c. 1892
113. 1898_230518_148.JPG: Puerto Rico Puerto Rico and Cuba were the only remaining Spanish colonies in the Americas after 1826. Puerto Ricans bet on colonial reform, but the Spanish monarchy undercut their aspirations through strict political rule. In 1868, separatists organized an armed insurrection, El Grito de Lares (the Cry of Lares), declaring Puerto Rico independent, but Spanish authorities quelled the revolt. Thereafter, most of Puerto Rico’s political class advocated for autonomy. In 1897, their struggle bore fruit when Spain granted the island its Carta Autonómica with ample political, administrative, and economic powers. However, on July 25, 1898, the charter was rendered moot when U.S. troops landed in Guánica. In general, Puerto Ricans welcomed the change of sovereignty from Spain to the United States in 1898. They hoped for more civil liberties, economic prosperity, and modernization. Later, against the backdrop of the First World War (1914–18), the United States granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans and established a popularly elected senate. Puerto Ricans elected their first governor in 1948, and in 1952, a new constitution redefined the island’s status as Estado Libre Asociado, or Commonwealth. The constitution was hailed as a bilateral agreement between Puerto Rico and the United States, but Congress retained full legislative authority over the island—and still does to this day.
114. 1898_230518_157.JPG: Hawai‘i Queen Lili‘uokalani (1838–1917) became Hawai‘i’s first female monarch on January 29, 1891, and was respected by Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiians, and foreign heads-of-state alike. However, she inherited a throne undermined by powerful Anglo-American settlers, whose business interests influenced local Hawaiian affairs. Seeking to reestablish the primacy of the Hawaiian monarchy that had ruled since Kamehameha I had united the archipelago in 1810, the Queen introduced a new Constitution on January 14, 1893. Three days later, her opponents—assisted by the U.S. military— staged a coup, imprisoning the Queen and eventually forcing her to abdicate. The “Republic of Hawaii” was established on July 4, 1894. On July 7, 1898, Congress approved a joint resolution to annex Hawai‘i, marking the culmination of more than a century of foreign threats to the archipelago, including those by the United States, as well as France, Germany, Great Britain, and Japan. By statute, the “Republic of Hawaii” was renamed the “Territory of Hawaii” on April 30, 1900, and eventually became a state in 1959. To this day, many Kānaka Maoli consider the “joint resolution for annexation” illegal, and they question the legitimacy of Hawaiian statehood, deeming it an occupation.
115. 1898_230518_161.JPG: Petition against the Annexation of Hawaiʻi In 1897, recently inaugurated President William McKinley submitted a treaty for Hawaiian annexation to the U.S. Senate. Those loyal to Queen Lili‘uokalani did not stand idle. In response, three organizations called for collective action to protest the overthrow. For instance, the Hui Hawaiʻi Aloha ‘Āina, led by lawyer and former minister of foreign affairs Joseph Nāwahı̄, organized petition drives. In December 1897, delegates of the organization brought a 556-page petition with 21,269 signatures to Washington, D.C., where Senator George Hoar of Massachusetts read it on the Senate floor. By February of 1898, the treaty still lacked the required majority and was successfully blocked. Hawaiian scholar Noenoe K. Silva uncovered these documents in the National Archives in the 1990s. The petitions continue to play a key role today, particularly in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Hawaiian Patriotic League 1897
116. 1898_230518_176.JPG: Petition against the Annexation of Hawaiʻi In 1897, recently inaugurated President William McKinley submitted a treaty for Hawaiian annexation to the U.S. Senate. Those loyal to Queen Lili‘uokalani did not stand idle. In response, three organizations called for collective action to protest the overthrow. For instance, the Hui Hawaiʻi Aloha ‘Āina, led by lawyer and former minister of foreign affairs Joseph Nāwahı̄, organized petition drives. In December 1897, delegates of the organization brought a 556-page petition with 21,269 signatures to Washington, D.C., where Senator George Hoar of Massachusetts read it on the Senate floor. By February of 1898, the treaty still lacked the required majority and was successfully blocked. Hawaiian scholar Noenoe K. Silva uncovered these documents in the National Archives in the 1990s. The petitions continue to play a key role today, particularly in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. Hawaiian Patriotic League 1897
117. 1898_230518_182.JPG: Rosina Kalanikauwekiulani Ayers's "Hawaiian Coat-of-Arms" Quilt Generations of women have passed on Hawaiian quilting traditions since the early 19th century. However, after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, the design of the Coat-of Arms quilt became a powerful symbol of allegiance to the queen. This quilt was a wedding gift to Rosina Kalanikauwekiulani in 1898. She was a descendant of King Kamehameha I, who in 1810 established the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. It features four flags and, in the center, the Royal Coat of Arms. The motto reads, “HAWAII PONOI / UA MAU KE EA O KA‘AINA IKA PONO,” or “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.” Unidentified Artist 1898
118. 1898_230518_185.JPG: “How about This” On July 4, 1894, the “Republic of Hawaii” was proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole, its recently appointed president. The United States immediately recognized the Republic, and Great Britain and other nations followed suit. This new government created a five-dollar poll tax, a financial requirement that consequently blocked many Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiians, from voting. It also imposed language restrictions targeting Japanese and Chinese residents of the archipelago. In 1896, the Republican National Convention platform included this statement supporting the annexation of Hawai‘i: “The Hawaiian Islands should be controlled by the United States, and no foreign powers should be permitted to interfere with them.” This caricature featuring Uncle Sam shows him holding a book entitled Monroe Doctrine and closely reading the Republican platform. Dole waits outside the gate with a “Deed gift to Uncle Sam of the Hawaiian Islands.” Hawai‘i was annexed by joint resolution of Congress on July 7, 1898. Grant E. Hamilton (1862–1926) Published in Judge magazine, 1898
119. 1898_230518_197.JPG: Consumer Culture In the United States, the War of 1898 inspired a vibrant market for maps, whimsical trinkets, and board games that were sold for entertainment and distributed to boost national pride. People played games in which territories and coaling stations could be conquered. While reading daily news reports, they tracked military campaigns using interactive maps. Trading cards and other novelties used portraiture to heroicize the U.S. military leaders of the war. The War of 1898 was over in a matter of months, but the production of consumer objects continued into the first decades of the twentieth century, mainly in the form of books on the “new possessions.” As time marched on, publications and other products confirmed the War of 1898 as a triumphant event in U.S. history, one reflecting U.S. military might, territorial expansion, and political power.
120. 1898_230518_201.JPG: Guam In 1898, after three hundred years of colonization by the Spanish, the island of Guam became a U.S. territory and has remained one ever since. Part of the Mariana Islands archipelago in Micronesia, Guam is located on the seven-thousand-mile ocean route between San Francisco, California, and Manila, in the Philippines. Guam’s natural harbor made it a critical coaling station for steampowered vessels in 1898. The first of thirty-eight U.S.-appointed naval governors of Guam, Richard P. Leary, began his rule on August 7, 1898. In 1901, thirty-two island leaders petitioned the United States for civil governance and U.S. citizenship, objecting to naval rule. More than seven other petitions were organized over the years. In 1950, President Harry S. Truman signed the Organic Act of Guam, and Guam’s naval government transitioned to a civilian one, with a governor appointed by the president of the United States until 1970, when residents of Guam began electing their governor. However, given its status as an unincorporated territory of the United States, the island remains subject to the full and complete legislative authority of the U.S. Congress. Today, the United States maintains military installations in Guam, making approximately one-third of the island inaccessible to its CHamoru (the Indigenous people of the Mariana Islands) and Guamanian populations.
121. 1898_230518_204.JPG: The Philippines Filipinos had been rebelling against Spanish rule for two years when the United States defeated the Spanish flotilla in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Many Filipinos, particularly residents of the island of Luzon, officially declared their independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, and continued their uprising against the Spanish with great success. When the U.S. Army launched a campaign in the Philippines in July, Filipinos believed that the United States would assist them in their war of independence. The Spanish, who had been reluctant to surrender to their “colonial” subjects, surrendered to the United States in a “mock” battle on August 13, 1898. In the peace treaty after the War of 1898, Spain sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. As in the case of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and CHamoru (the Indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, including Guam), Filipinos were not represented in the peace negotiations. Consequently, beginning in 1899, Filipinos waged a war of resistance against the United States, known as the Philippine-American War. Although the United States claimed victory in 1902, fighting persisted through the 1913 Battle of Bud Bagsak, with hostile engagements continuing even after that date. The Philippines did not attain independence until July 4, 1946.
122. 1898_230518_207.JPG: Under the umbrella, which signifies rank, John J. Pershing stands to the right of the Rajamunda of Marahui, whom he met during his visit to the northern Lake Lanao region (November 26-December 2, 1903).
123. 1898_230518_213.JPG: Kris with Wooden Scabbard The kris sword is from Mindanao Island and the Sulu archipelago. Captain John J. Pershing is pictured here with a kris. In 1903, Pershing gathered intelligence from forty-eight sultans and datus in Lake Lanao in Mindanao. When some of these leaders refused to give information, Pershing led punitive expeditions against them, including one that killed one hundred and twenty members of the sultan of Bacalod’s household. One of the soldiers who served under Pershing, George C. Shaw, seized this weapon in 1903. Shaw donated this kris to the Smithsonian Institution in 1922. 1903 Iron alloy, wood, twined cellulose fiber
124. 1898_230518_219.JPG: U.S. Model 1898 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle While in the Philippines, U.S. Army soldiers some- times sang a song with the refrain, “Civilize ’em with a Krag.” The Krag-Jorgensen rifle, with its superior smokeless firepower, was the most modern rifle used by the U.S. military in the War of 1898. An impressive firearm, it nonetheless had to be loaded slowly, by hand. This meant that it was best suited for deliberate, well-aimed fire. Conversely, the Spanish and Filipinos used the German-designed Mauser rifle, which could be loaded through the top of the magazine with a stripper clip, a much faster and smoother process. Ole H. J. Krag (1837–1916) 1898
125. 1898_230518_222.JPG: Our Islands and Their People as Seen with the Camera and Pencil This popular two-volume book sold around four hundred thousand copies. Its aim was to map out and assert the new empire and acquaint U.S. readers with the country’s “new possessions.” Puerto Rico, Hawai‘i, the Philippines, and Guam. The publication also addresses the Samoa Islands, of which the United States annexed those lying east of longitude 171 degrees in 1899. By pairing landscape and portrait photography with data and U.S. military observations, Our Islands portrayed colonial subjects as “others” in need of political instruction from the United States. José de Olivares 1899
126. 1898_230518_235.JPG: Codifying Empire The War of 1898 ended when the Treaty of Paris was signed by Spain and the United States on December 10, 1898. The United States gained sovereignty over Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam, and promised Cuba the right to independence after a period of military occupation. As the United States assumed control of these islands and annexed Hawai‘i, the issue of empire continued to be contested, especially in the 1900 presidential election. Theodore Roosevelt defended the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, writing in 1901 that “if white people were morally bound to abandon the Philippines, we were also morally bound to abandon Arizona to the Apaches.” His opponents argued that colonialism ran against the founding principles of the United States. Both groups, however, debated the consequences of incorporating peoples of various races, languages, religions, and cultures into the U.S. political and social systems. The 1901 Supreme Court’s decisions in the Insular Cases justified the power of Congress over the “new possessions” and the selective application of U.S. constitutional protections in lands now defined as “unincorporated territories.” The constitutionality of the Insular Cases and the colonial framework they established are still debated today.
127. 1898_230518_241.JPG: The Conquerors (Culebra Cut, Panama Canal) In 1903, with Theodore Roosevelt leading negotiations, the new nation of Panama granted the United States the land for a proposed canal. Linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Panama Canal ensured U.S. sea power. U.S.-directed construction for the $352 million project (around $11 billion today) began in 1904, when crews from the West Indies and other countries began carving out 100 million cubic meters of rock and soil. This painting visualizes a section of the nine-mile cut made into the Culebra Mountain and features workers, steam-powered excavating shovels, and a locomotive, as well as hydraulic rock crushers. More than 5,600 lives were lost during the canal’s construction before it was completed in 1914. The resulting Canal Zone created a divide within the Republic of Panama, as only employees of the canal, the U.S. military, and their families could reside there. The United States treated the Panama Canal Zone as an unincorporated territory until 1979. Jonas Lie (1880–1940) 1913
128. 1898_230518_273.JPG: Uncle Sam’s New Class in the Art of Self-Government After the conclusion of the War of 1898, there was uncertainty as to how Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawai‘i, and Guam would be incorporated in the United States. While some politicians were eager to establish trade routes through the new territories, others feared annexing lands inhabited by peoples of various races, languages, and cultures. Expansionists argued that the United States should carry the “white man’s burden” of educating others in “the art of self-government.” These prejudiced views are revealed in this cover issue of Harper’s Weekly. In this caricature, Uncle Sam is the only adult in a classroom, while the new territories are personified as children. William Allen Rogers (1854–1931)
129. 1898_230518_282.JPG: The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures The War of 1898 and the subsequent Philippine- American War were the first U.S. military conflicts to be filmed. The Edison Manufacturing Company and the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company produced the films in Orange, New Jersey. While some films involve actual footage taken in the United States, Cuba, and the Philippines, others were staged as reenactments of battles or marching soldiers. Such is the case with this film, which depicts Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders charging toward the camera. The “Rough Riders” nickname was given to the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, which saw combat in Cuba under Roosevelt’s leadership. The U.S. press widely covered their role in the battle at Las Guásimas and San Juan Hill in eastern Cuba, cementing their popularity among the U.S. public. Edison Manufacturing Company 1898
130. 1898_230518_304.JPG: Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen In writing this book, Queen Lili‘uokalani chronicled her upbringing and the events of her overthrow, and she responded to the 1894 Morgan Report, which attempted to justify the coup against her. The cover illustration includes two kāhili, or the symbolic staff of the state. Made from feathers, kāhili are important emblems of Hawaiian royalty with direct ties to the tradition of featherwork as well as ritual. A floral lei, topped with a crown, encircles “Liliu,” the queen’s birthname. Queen Liliʻuokalani (1838–1917) Published by Lee and Shepard 1898
131. 1898_230518_306.JPG: ʻAhu ʻula (The Kalākaua Cape) King David Kalākaua may have worn or displayed this feather cloak on the royal throne, as the ‘ahu ‘ula had become known as the “robe of state” by the mid-nineteenth century. Kalākaua was intent on uplifting Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, culture. By the end of the century, featherwork was a powerful symbol of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The cape, which may be considered a portrait of Kalākaua, features feathers from native forest birds. Maria Kealaulaokalani Lane Ena (1862–1924) Late nineteenth century
132. 1898_230518_312.JPG: “Spain Guilty!” Soon after the explosion of the USS Maine, newspapers in the United States crafted bold headlines that blamed the ship’s destruction on a Spanish mine. This example, from March 25, 1898, appeared in the New York Journal, whose publisher was William Randolph Hearst. While a naval board of inquiry was unable to confirm Spanish involvement in the attack, the press helped rally popular support for war. The New York Journal had recently congratulated itself for promoting “journalism of action,” a new genre that sought to stimulate readership by participating in social and political causes. However, not all were convinced by this creed. The term “yellow journalism” first appeared in the New York Press to condemn sensationalism and distortion of information within the New York Journal and the New York World, published by Hearst’s rival, Joseph Pulitzer. A negative term, it is still used today to criticize journalistic misconduct. New York Journal’s front page, March 25, 1898 1898
133. 1898_230518_333.JPG: Afro-American Historical Family Record This broadside is both a personal genealogical chart and a pictorial history of African American advancement. Symbols of national government, vignettes of an antebellum slave auction, cotton picking, and under-resourced schools on the left are contrasted with postwar scenes of free communities, industrial jobs, and prosperous schools on the right. The portraits of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, educator Lucy C. Laney, and lawyer Judson Lyons, grouped with Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, highlight the national symbols of human rights and civil rights for African Americans. The two scenes at the bottom show the African American Ninth and Tenth Cavalries and the Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Colored Infantries as they crucially assist the Rough Riders in the key Cuban battles of the War of 1898. These images make a declarative statement for African American honor and belonging to the nation. James M. Vickroy (1847–1913), Historical Publishing Company (active c. 1899) 1899
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