Victorian Visual Culture

While searching for a compelling virtual exhibition to focus on for my review, I came across the Smithsonian’s online exhibitions and visited their portrait focused virtual event. The exhibition focuses on the actions taken by the U.S. in and around 1898, and how it shaped both imperialism domestically and within annexed territories. The event is shaped around each territory or country the U.S. focused their attention on within the time period: Cuba, Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, The Philippines, and Guam. The exhibition itself features a wide variety of portraits and photographs of notable players in each conflict, both American imperialists, and those who rejected annexation. The portraits are interspersed with images such as ship manifests, political cartoons, and even American board games depicting the Spanish-American War. 

I found this exhibition especially fascinating when contrasted with our class discussions surrounding British imperialism and colonialism. Much of the 19th century crises occurring in Britain and its colonies at the time reflect greatly in the determination behind the American government’s need to supersede Spain and its territories in the same time period. Some of the exhibition explains how each war and annexation were framed for the American public as a sort of “Manifest Destiny”: an obligation to free each country from either Spain’s oppression or their own independent governments that placed the residents of these territories as less than those who lived in the U.S. and therefore needed their aide. 

While there are many portraits and photographs used in this exhibition, the first two that caught my eye were of Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawai’i, their first female monarch and last independent ruler, the first being the portrait she commissioned during her reign as a message of power towards the U.S., and the second being a photograph taken years later after her failed Congress hearing to ask for both her lands back and reparations to be paid. Something about both of these pieces felt immensely powerful to me, and struck me as standing out from many of the portraits in the collection depicting various American soldiers and congressmen. The accompanying description of the first portrait explains her dedication to showing strength in the face of American imperialism and I think the use of an ornate portrait that reflects those made of European monarchs is an impressive strategic move indicative of her intelligence in a wider context. According to the blurb, using western art methods for her own benefit was a strategy she used consistently throughout her reign. 

Despite completely different artistic methods and intention, the photograph taken of the Queen fifteen years later seems to bring a similar impression of power to her appearance. The description with this image tells the story of her work after the annexation of Hawai’i, including her various terms of house arrest, and her subsequent trips to Washington D.C. to fight for her country back. The clear cut reality in this photo caught my attention immediately. She stares at the camera with such a calm intensity that reminds me of many other images of world leaders taken in later decades. Even though she had failed in her plea to the U.S. government right before she sat for this photo, her resolve remains strong. I think using both the portrait of the Queen and this photograph add a needed dimension to the exhibition as a whole, especially as Hawai’i is the only one of territories taken by the U.S. at this time that has become a U.S. state. The forced assimilation and overwhelming tourism that has dominated modern Hawaiian culture feels much more despicable when faced with the woman who fought so intensely against it. 

In a completely different vein, the element of the exhibition that surprised me the most was the section titled “Consumer Culture” that presented images of various board games made in the 1890’s to gain national support and selective understanding of the wars being fought over the countries mentioned in the exhibition. Most were made with children in mind, and some(as described in various blurbs) even encourage kids to come up with their own battle strategies to overtake the enemy. Propaganda like this clearly skewed public opinion in favor of imperialism during the period, and while the stakes of board games and images such as these are much higher, the manipulation of patriotism feels quite reminiscent of the advertising we discussed in class for products such as soap and perfume. I wonder how much British advertising was accessible to American advertisers and how each industry benefited from each other in the 19th century.

Overall, I thought this exhibition was quite fascinating as a critique of, and general history lesson about American imperialism. While imperialism in Britain took a different shape in the 1800s, it nonetheless shows a clear influence over the actions of the American government.

Works Cited:

1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions, 29 Apr. 2023 – Feb. 25 2024, National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.