BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Beyond Bollywood

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Beyond Bollywood:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation
February 27, 2014 – August 16, 2015
Learn about the history and contemporary experiences of Indian Americans as they have grown to be one of the more diverse and well-recognized communities in the United States. Photographs, artifacts, video, and interactives are used to trace their arrival and labor participation in the early 1900s; their achievements in medicine, small business, IT, and taxi-driving; and their many contributions in building the nation. The exhibition also reveals how they have kept and shared their culture and organized to meet the needs of the under-served, as well as how the younger generation has participated in spelling bees, dance, hip-hop, and contemporary cuisine.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Slide Show: Want to see the pictures as a slide show? [Slideshow]

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.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] BOLLY_140325_002.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] BOLLY_140325_005.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[3] BOLLY_140325_011.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[4] BOLLY_140325_015.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[5] BOLLY_140325_022.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[6] BOLLY_140325_030.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[7] BOLLY_140325_033.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[8] BOLLY_140325_037.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[9] BOLLY_140325_039.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[10] BOLLY_140325_042.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[11] BOLLY_140325_051.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[12] BOLLY_140325_057.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[13] BOLLY_140325_061.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[14] BOLLY_140325_065.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[15] BOLLY_140325_069.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[16] BOLLY_140325_072.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[17] BOLLY_140325_075.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[18] BOLLY_140325_078.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[19] BOLLY_140325_084.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[20] BOLLY_140325_090.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[21] BOLLY_140325_092.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[22] BOLLY_140325_099.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[23] BOLLY_140325_101.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[24] BOLLY_140325_104.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[25] BOLLY_140325_110.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[26] BOLLY_140325_114.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[27] BOLLY_140325_119.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[28] BOLLY_140325_128.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[29] BOLLY_140325_134.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[30] BOLLY_140325_138.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[31] BOLLY_140325_143.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[32] BOLLY_140325_149.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[33] BOLLY_140325_153.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[34] BOLLY_140325_156.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[35] BOLLY_140325_158.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[36] BOLLY_140325_164.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[37] BOLLY_140325_169.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[38] BOLLY_140325_172.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[39] BOLLY_140325_175.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[40] BOLLY_140325_180.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. BOLLY_140325_011.JPG: The First Immigrants: In the 1500s, America's first colonists left England in search of political and personal freedom. Centuries later, as India struggled to survive under British colonial rule, the first wave of Indian immigrants arrived here with the same vision in their eyes. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, farmers from Punjab, oppressed by British taxation and restrictions on land ownership, settled along the American west coast. They worked alongside Chinese immigrants in lumber mills and iron factories and on railroads to support the nation's industrial boom. Meanwhile, peddlers from West Bengal, capitalizing on the American desire for "Oriental" goods such as silk and spices, set up shop along the Eastern seaboard. Indian seamen, eager to escape the boiling engine rooms of British steamers, began jumping ship in New York and Baltimore. Generations later, the descendants of these early immigrants grew in number and wealth, to become influential landowners in California's Central Valley, entrepreneurs in America's "free" market system, public servants, and organizers for civil rights.
2. BOLLY_140325_015.JPG: Magician Howard Thurston performs the so-called "EAST INDIAN ROPE TRICK," ca 1927. This stage illusion involved a levitating rope and a disappearing boy assistant, with a fake Indian setting intended to make things more mysterious.
3. BOLLY_140325_022.JPG: Hills Brothers coffee tin, 1950s-1960s Images the evoked the exotic East were still being used to sell coffee in the 1960s.
4. BOLLY_140325_037.JPG: America Imagines India India is no stranger to America, especially when it comes to popular culture. And although Bollywood now has center stage, it is just one aspect of India in the American imagination. In the 1800s, travel writers, intoxicated by India as a "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire, sketched exotic caricatures of the Indian "Hindoo," complementing exports of silks and spices to America. Rudyard Kipling's story collection The Jungle Book (1894) gave generations of Americans the image of India as a half-naked "jungle boy" named Mowgli. In 1922, actor Rudolph Valentino cast an unforgettable image as The Young Rajah wearing "brown-face." Nowadays, Indian Americans play themselves in films, but they are often typecast as engineers or doctors, reinforcing the myth that all are educationally and financially successful. Perhaps the most popular representation of an Indian in America, though, is the Kwik-e-Mart proprietor Apu from The Simpsons.
5. BOLLY_140325_039.JPG: Did you know? Bollywood, a part of India's movie industry, derives its name from combining its home location, "Bombay," with "Hollywood." The origins of both industries date back to the early 1900s, and Bollywood films often imagine America for Indian audiences.
6. BOLLY_140325_042.JPG: In the 1922 silent film, THE YOUNG RAJAH, Italian-born actor Rudolph Valentino was one of the first to portray Indian royalty for American audiences.
7. BOLLY_140325_051.JPG: Indian immigrants work on railway construction, Pacific and Eastern Railroad, Oregon, ca 1906.
8. BOLLY_140325_057.JPG: An Indian immigrant worker harvests beets in Hamilton City, California, for the Sacramento Valley Sugar Company, ca 1907-1915.
9. BOLLY_140325_061.JPG: Driven Out: "Give me your tired, your poor," read the words on the Statue of Liberty. But, as Indians and other immigrants discovered, American shores were not always welcoming. On September 4, 1907, not long after the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act restricting immigration from "Asiatic nations," a mob of nearly 500 men attacked Punjabi lumber mill workers in Bellingham, Washington. Their intention: to force them out. Many residents witnessed the incident, but none of the perpetrators were arrested, and city officials had no response. The entire Indian population left the city within two weeks. Two months later, similar attacks occurred elsewhere in Washington, and later in California and British Columbia, Canada.
10. BOLLY_140325_065.JPG: A New Problem for Uncle Sam (Uncle Sam) "Say! Take this impossible thing back! We don't want it over here!" (Hindu) "Incompetence. Indolence." (Viceroy of India) "Ha! Ha! Not me!"
11. BOLLY_140325_072.JPG: The Great Melting Pot: In the early 20th century, America experienced a "boom" of industry and needed laborers for manual work. The solution: workers from nations such as India. The catch: the government did not want "foreigners" to settle here, so it discouraged the immigration of women. Nevertheless, Indian immigrants did settle, marrying other immigrants and racial minorities. Along the west coast, Punjabi men married Mexican women. In the east and the south, Bengali traders settled in neighborhoods such as Harlem, West Baltimore, and Treme in New Orleans, marrying Creole, Puerto Rican, and African American women. Today, their descendants are a living record of this blending.
12. BOLLY_140325_075.JPG: Who gets to be a citizen? Since the first census in 1790, the US government has struggled to classify the racial and ethnic diversity within our shores. Until 1900, Indian immigrants were counted as "foreigners." From 1910 to 1930, Indians were classified as "nonwhite Hindu," no matter what their religion was. From 1940 to 1970, Indians were simply "Other." Only in 1980 did the Census begin using the more accurate "Asian Indian." For early immigrants, the term "nonwhite," "Hindu," and "foreigner" were signs that they were barred from citizenship.
13. BOLLY_140325_078.JPG: AK Mozumdar: In 1913, writer AK Mozumdar convinced a Washington State judge that as a "Caucasian" he met the requirements of US citizenship. At the time, anthropologists classified Indians as Caucasian, and only Caucasian immigrants could be American citizens. But in 1923 the US Supreme Court ruled that no "East Indian" (or "nonwhite Hindu") could become an American citizen, and Mozumdar's citizenship was revoked.
14. BOLLY_140325_084.JPG: Bhagat Singh Thind: Bhagat Singh Thind, a devout Sikh and US Army combat veteran, was granted American citizenship in 1920. However, the Bureau of Naturalization disagreed. In 1923, the US Supreme Court concurred; Singh's citizenship was revoked on the grounds that, although "Caucasian," he did not belong to "the various groups of persons in this country commonly recognized as white." Undeterred, he applied again, and again, and was finally granted citizenship in 1936.
15. BOLLY_140325_090.JPG: Did You Know? By the 1940s, the US public began to look more favorably on Indian immigrants because India was contributing to Allied efforts in World War II. More than 3 million Indian troops fought as part of the Allied forces against Germany, Italy, and Japan, and India's maharajas contributed money and arms to the Allied cause.
16. BOLLY_140325_092.JPG: Freedom Here and There: Although separated by thousands of miles, Indians in India were fighting for freedom from British rule at the same time as Indian immigrants in America were fighting for citizenship. Early immigrants connected the two struggles, reasoning that as long as Indians were British subjects, Indians in America would be treated as coolies, or manual laborers, without dignity and rights. These campaigners knew that victories on both continents would ensure for future generations the inalienable rights spoken of by America's Declaration of Independence.
17. BOLLY_140325_099.JPG: Yogo America Yoga. Everyone's doing it. Yoga, which gets its name from the Sanskrit yog ("union"), may be India's most popular contribution to American culture. Spiritual teacher Swami Vivekananda introduced this ancient philosophy to America in 1893. Years later, in the tumultuous 1960s, yoga intrigued Americans intent on embracing Eastern spirituality and rejecting Western materialism. In the '70s and '80s, Americans increasingly took up yoga as part of a national enthusiasm for exercise and a desire to "feel the burn!" By the 1990s, more than 15 million of us were practicing yoga. Today, yoga is big business and a lifestyle. Yoga studios have sprung up all over major cities and small towns, and Americans spend $5 billion annually on yoga classes, props, clothes, and accessories.
18. BOLLY_140325_101.JPG: Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation: In the western imagination, India conjures up many things: elephants, saris and spices; gurus, gods, and goddesses; turbans, temples, and a billion faces drawn from ancient history, modern-day Slumdog Millionaires, and the pulsating energy of Bollywood movies. But in America, India's contributions stretch far beyond these stereotypes. Our story starts with an Indian sailors who landed on the shores of Massachusetts in 1790, just 14 years after the Declaration of Independence. It includes workers who built railroads out west throughout the 19th century and families who form the backbone of California's farms. The first Asian in Congress. The creator of Hotmail. Doctors. Cab drivers. Musicians. Athletes. And a lawyer named Gandhi, whose quest for Indian independence inspired one of America's greatest social revolutions: the Civil Rights Movement. Today, one out of every 100 Americans traces his or her roots to India. India's fingerprints here range from flavorful food and flamboyant fashion to yoga studios, sites of worship, and breakthroughs in medicine, science, and technology. From Silicon Valley to Smalltown, USA, the lives and stories of America's 3.3 million Indian Americans are woven into the larger story of this nation -- and have shaped it to be what it is today.
19. BOLLY_140325_104.JPG: Who Belongs in America? What does an American look like? Can a bindi or turban signal that one is not American? Some stereotypes may be harmless, but offers can be deadly. Since 1920, when US Army veterans Bhagat Singh Thind -- a man with a turban -- took his case for citizenship to the US Supreme Court. Indian Americans have been fighting for a more just and inclusive nation. However, as scholar Vijay Prasad notes, "belonging does not come without a fight."
20. BOLLY_140325_110.JPG: Dotbusters: In 1987, a hate group calling themselves the Dotbusters -- from the bindi or "dot" worn by some Indian women -- began a campaign against Indian immigrants in Jersey City, New Jersey. They vandalized property and attacked Indians on the street. Their motivation: growing economic inequality, which they blamed on Indian residents. They spoke out in the Jersey Journal, a local publication: "We are called dot busters. We will do to any extreme to get Indians to move out of Jersey City. If I'm walking down the street and I see a Hindu and the setting is right, I will hit him or her ... We will never be stopped." But they were stopped.
21. BOLLY_140325_114.JPG: Turban of BALBIR SINGH SODHI, murdered in Arizona after 9/11
22. BOLLY_140325_119.JPG: 9-11: Artists Respond, Vol 1., 2002 Writer: Brian Pulido, penciller; Ivan Reis, inker; Joe Pimentel, colors; Hi-fi, letterer: Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt.
23. BOLLY_140325_128.JPG: 9/11 and Afterwards: September 11, 2001, changed America forever. Many immigrants and racial minorities, including those from India, no longer felt safe or welcome here. Sikhs, some of whom traced their American ancestry back multiple generations, were suddenly assumed to be terrorists because of their beards and turbans. Mosques were firebombed. Hindu temples were vandalized. Days after the Twin Tower attacks, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh gas station owner, was shot to death in Mesa, Arizona, by a man who told the police, "I stand for America all the way." America's darkest hours are rooted in discrimination and violence. Like all Americans, Indians are part of this history. Times have changed since the days of slavery and segregation, but as ongoing racial profiling, employment discrimination, and the 2012 killings in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, show, there are still seasons of change to come.
24. BOLLY_140325_134.JPG: This cartoon of Uncle Sam hugging a Sikh appeared in newspapers nationwide on August 8, 2012.
25. BOLLY_140325_138.JPG: Miss America 2014: In 2013, Nina Davuluri of New York State was crowned Miss America, the first Indian American to hold the title. Her historic win sparked racist and xenophobic comments on the Internet, as well as praise from Indians in the US and the American public at large. For the talent portion of the beauty pageant, Davuluri performed a Bollywood-style dance.
26. BOLLY_140325_143.JPG: Mohini Bhardwaj: In 2004, gymnast Mohini Bhardwaj became the first Indian American woman to win an Olympic medal -- and the second Indian American to win an Olympic medal, behind Alexi Grewal, who won a gold medal in cycling at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
27. BOLLY_140325_149.JPG: Olympic silver medal and Olympic credential of Mohini Bhardwaj
28. BOLLY_140325_156.JPG: Dress of First Lady Michelle Obama Designed by Naeem Khan First Lady Michelle Obama has worn a number of gowns by designer Naeem Khan, including this one from the 2012 Governors' Dinner. Khan likes to combine "the clean lines I learned from Halston and complicated Indian over-the-top Bollywood traditions." Silhouettes are modern, simple, and chic, but Khan adds Indian embroidery patterns passed down through generations.
29. BOLLY_140325_158.JPG: M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: In 1999, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan made history with The Sixth Sense -- one of the all-time highest-grossing films, worldwide. He has since gone on to make a number of other films and continues to work with Hollywood's "A-list."
30. BOLLY_140325_164.JPG: ZUBIN MEHTA: Zubin Mehta was appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and later, the New York Philharmonic -- the first person of Indian origin to become principal conductor of a major American orchestra.
31. BOLLY_140325_175.JPG: Motel Owners: In her 1991 film Mississippi Masala, director Mira Nair introduced audiences to a then-new protagonist in the story of American entrepreneurship: the Indian motel owner. Set in Greenwood, Mississippi, the film opened a window into the lives of Indian immigrants who own and operate motels throughout America. Motels are examples of the small businesses that serve as immigrant gateways into the American Dream, and Indian Americans are crediting with reviving what was once thought to be a dying industry. Today, Indian Americans are synonymous with motels. When a newcomer family makes a success in the business, they send for relatives to join them. Success comes at a cost, though, as many motel owners are tied to their workplaces 24-7, with litter separation between work and home life. Many live in their motels, upholding faith, family, and tradition in their private lives while presenting an American "face" to the outside world.
Multi Column: Number of columns of thumbnails to appear per page (normally defaults to 3): [1 col] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: ) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2023_DC_SIAH_Mirror: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Mirror, Mirror for Us All: Disney Parks and the American Narrative / Experience (146 photos from 2023)
- 2023_09_26C2_SIAH_More_Perfect: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: A More Perfect Union: American Artists and the Currents of Our Time (23 photos from 09/26/2023)
- 2023_09_26C1_SIAH_Latinas_Report: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Latinas Report Breaking News (85 photos from 09/26/2023)
- 2023_09_19A5_SIAH_More_Perfect: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: A More Perfect Union: American Artists and the Currents of Our Time (134 photos from 09/19/2023)
- 2023_09_17D2_SIAH_Holzer: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Jenny Holzer, THE PEOPLE (22 photos from 09/17/2023)
- 2023_07_13B1_SIAH_Weatherbreak: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Reconstructing ‘Weatherbreak’ in an Age of Extreme Weather (17 photos from 07/13/2023)
- 2023_06_30D1_SIAH_Trouble: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Treasures and Trouble: Looking Inside a Legendary Blues Archive (42 photos from 06/30/2023)
- 2022_DC_SIAH_Sense: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Discovery and Revelation: Religion, Science, and Making Sense of Things (87 photos from 2022)
- 2022_DC_SIAH_Remembrance: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: War and Remembrance (8 photos from 2022)
- 2022_DC_SIAH_Rallying: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Rallying Against Racism (8 photos from 2022)
- ...More (List all 132 pages)...
Sort of Related Pages: Still more pages here that have content somewhat related to this one :
- 2022_DC_SIAH_Muppets: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: The Muppets Take American History (11 photos from 2022)
- 2021_DC_SIAH_Muppets: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: The Muppets Take American History (27 photos from 2021)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Everything)] [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Non-Events)] [Museums (History)]
2014 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Winchester, VA, Nashville, TN, and Atlanta, GA), Michigan to visit mom in the hospice before she died and then a return trip after she died, and my 9th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City, Sacramento, Oakland, and Los Angeles). Ego strokes: Paul Dickson used one of my photos as the author photo in his book "Aphorisms: Words Wrought by Writers". Number of photos taken this year: just over 470,000.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Limiting Text: You can turn off all of this text by clicking this link: [Thumbnails Only]
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].