Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in American Studies
Performing Authentic Savagery: National Myth-Making And Indigenous Survival At American World's Fairs, 1893-1904, Hannah Facknitz
Performing Authentic Savagery: National Myth-Making And Indigenous Survival At American World's Fairs, 1893-1904, Hannah Facknitz
Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019
The late nineteenth century in America was a period of intense change, where society took on the project of describing what exactly made America what it was. An important vehicle for this exploration of identity was the world’s fair. This paper analyzes the Chicago World Columbian Exposition of 1893, the Omaha Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition of 1898, and the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 and their depictions of Indigenous North Americans which were closely tied up in the current project of national myth making. A three-way conflict emerges in this study between contemporary anthropologists, entertainment professionals, and so-called …