THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY in Washington, DC, has opened “1898: U.S. IMPERIAL VISIONS AND REVISIONS.” The museum describes this as the first major Smithsonian exhibition to examine the U.S. intervention in Cuba, and the nation’s expansion into Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. As such, it marks the 125th anniversary of the U.S. acquiring overseas territories and its emergence as a world power.

The exhibition has been organized by Taina Caragol, NPG’s curator of painting, sculpture, and Latino art and history, and Kate Clarke Lemay, historian. Their intention is to “use the lens of portraiture and visual culture” to present those who advocated overseas expansion, those who opposed it, and “those who tried to have agency over their political futures when the U.S. brought Cuba, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines into its sphere of power.”

Right: R. Yardley. “Pearl Harbor: This Property Is Not For Sale,” ink on paper (1901). Hawai’i State Archive

The curators describe the year 1898 as “a flashpoint that brought about profound geopolitical changes, and a pivotal year signalling America’s emergence as a world power.”  The exhibition “anchors the history of 1898 in the displacement and war against Native American nations” in the wake of US territorial expansion to the Pacific, and “examines how that expansion then reached overseas territories.”

The exhibition is launched with a portrait of President William McKinley (by Francisco Oller y Cestero, 1898). When the USS Maine was sunk somewhat mysteriously in Havana Harbor, Congress voted to go to war against Spain on April 25, 1898. President McKinley was authorized to send US troops to remove Spain’s colonial rule and to allow Cuban independence.  US military intervention in Cuba was a sparkplug to nationalism, and fueled America’s determination to take Spanish-controlled lands both in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The consequent War of 1898 saw the US take control from the Spanish in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines,  and Guam. With nationalist fervor, Congress also passed a joint resolution that  annexed Hawaii in 1898, with pro-war activists arguing that the US needed Hawaii for a central Pacific naval base to ward off potential occupation by Japan.  Following America’s victory over Spain, the Treaty of Paris in December 1898 removed Spain from the Caribbean and paved the way for building the Panama Canal that connected the Caribbean to the Pacific (1904-1914). The US also gained a strategic naval presence in Asia by purchasing the Philippines from Spain for $20 milliion and annexing Guam. Hawaii was made a US Territory in 1900.

Above left: Francisco Oller, William McKinley (detail), oil on canvas (1898)
Collection of Dr. Eduardo Perez and family; Photo: John Betancourt

The exhibition’s “visual culture” displays portraits of key figures in the US debates surrounding the idea of America’s global expansion. Particular note is made of the “freedom fighters like Jose Marti from Cuba, Eugenio Maria de Hostos from Puerto Rico, Jose Jizal from the Philippines, and Padre Jose Bernardo Palomo from Guam.”  To highlight the annexation of Hawaii in July 1898, the exhibit has borrowed a revered portrait of Queen Lili’uokalani, the Hawaiian Kingdom’s last sovereign monarch, from the Hawaii State Archives—-the first time the portrait will be on view outside of Hawaii.

Curator Taina Caragol believes that however triumphant the 1898 war was in ushering in an era of US global power, she is most intrigued by America’s embrace of imperialism, asking, “How could a nation born out of an anti-colonial struggle take into its possession overseas territories? Did this go against the country’s founding values of freedom? This exhibition focuses on those debates and points to their aftermath.” Visual culture is used to present history from multiple perspectives, and the curators argue that “Patrons of portraiture wielded the craft as an instrument of nation building, and in the lands whose sovereignty the United States assailed or dissolved, as a tool of resistance or affirmation.”

Above, right: Miguel Díaz Salinero, José Martí, oil on canvas (1942)
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Fernandez; Photo: Daniella Piantin

The exhibition features 94 objects, including works from each of the countries covered. The curators explored some 74 collections around the world, and the exhibition displays artwork by leading period artists like John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Armando Garcia Menocal, Juan Luna, and Frederic Remington, along with archival documents. There are also maps, period board games, magazine illustrations, and caricatures that “illustrate how imagery was used to gain public support for the government’s expansionist efforts.”  For this reviewer, an eyebrow-raising absence was any mention of the “yellow journalism” that sensationalized the sinking of the Maine, with the hot-headed headlines of William Randolph Hearst’s NEW YORK JOURNAL screaming, “Remember the Maine!”   

Below: Ildefonso Sanz y Doménech, Batalla en la Bahía de Manila, 1 de mayo del 1898 (Battle of Manila Bay May 1, 1898), detail, oil on canvas (1899). The Army and Navy Club Library Trust, Washington, D.C.

The exhibition sprawls over a large space that makes a strong narrative thread difficult to maintain. Although the emphasis on “visual culture” is portrayed by strong artworks, art itself can’t replace the importance of conveying the historical High Drama that surrounded the 1898 war. In fact, the exhibition’s pleasing design and use of gentle colors works against this history by diluting any sense of controversy.

“The Portrait Gallery exhibition is well-intentioned, and rightly reminds us of a war that illuminated a “pivotal year” in America’s emergence as a modern national power. But it’s also important to avoid sugar-coating what this war illustrated about America itself:  it was not contrary to Founding principles, but an expansion of America’s historical belief that they were God’s Chosen People, and that expanding Founding ideals would benefit the world.”

Two important themes have been lost in this exhibition.  First, there is little note of how the 1898 War illuminated an economic shift in America’s desire for the “wealth of the Orient.” In the early decades of the 19th c, Asia was seen as a resource for Americans to buy tea, silk, and porcelain. But with the rise of America’s consumer economy in the 1890s, the “want” was reversed, and Asia’s importance was transformed into being a potential buyer for America’s exports. The acquisition of the Philippines and Guam gave the US vast new commercial opportunities in Asia, and worked against fear that another major power such as Germany or Japan would take these islands.

Annexing Hawaii–also of stratetic importance to the US– was more complex. In the mid-1890s, Hawaii’s diverse populations became embroiled in battles over  the monarchy. Queen Lili’uokalani, the first and only Hawaiin queen, was deposed in 1893. Greek immigrants living in Hawaii were notably among those who fought to restore her to the throne, while big businessmen like Samuel Dole, who owned vast sugar plantations, led a successful effort against her restoration. In the wake of Hawaii’s annexation by the U.S., Dole became Hawaii’s first governor.

Above, left: William F. Cogswell, Portrait of Queen Lili`uokalani (detail), oil on canvas
(c. 1891-92). Hawai’i State Archives; Photo: David Franze

Another major theme affecting the 1898 exhibit is a too-generous interpretation of America’s Founding principles. The curatorial heart lies with a misguided interpretation of the “founding values of freedom.” Those values were never prescribed for everyone, and the 1898 War was not a contradiction of these ideals, but a continuation and expansion of them into a global vision. The Founding belief that “All men are created equal” literally meant that all White Anglo-Saxon Men Who Own Property were equal—this lofty thought did not include women, Blacks or other people of color, Jews, or (usually) Catholics. In decades before the Civil War, most states enacted laws doing away with the property qualification, so most White men could vote.

Below: “How About This,” from Judge magazine. Artist: Grant E. Hamilton, Print 1898. Courtesy of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Library, Honolulu, HI. Text is questioning Uncle Sam about whether Republican goals for 1898 should be “to run or stand on” expanded protectionist, Founding ideals to benefit the world.

In 1828, Maryland allowed Jews the vote; the 14th Amendment allowed Black men/former slaves to be citizens; in 1876, the Supreme Court ruled that Native Americans were not citizens and could not vote; in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prevented Chinese from citizenship; in 1887 the Daws Act granted citizenship to Native Americans who gave up their tribal affiliations.  In 1898—the same year as the Spanish-American War–the Supreme Court made segregation the law of the land in Plessy v. Ferguson.  And in 1920, the 19th Amendment gave (mainly White) women the right to vote. The struggle for equal rights is ongoing: just this Spring Congress blocked the Equal Rights Amendment that would’ve guaranteed women equal pay for equal work.

The Portrait Gallery exhibition is well-intentioned, and rightly reminds us of a war that illuminated a “pivotal year” in America’s emergence as a modern national power. But it’s also important to avoid sugar-coating what this war illustrated about America itself:  it was not contrary to Founding principles, but an expansion of America’s historical belief that they were God’s Chosen People, and that expanding Founding ideals would benefit the world. History’s role in explaining stories like this is to inject an essential understanding about who we are as a nation–no matter how difficult that story may be.

By Amy Henderson, Contributing Editor

“I898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions” will be at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, through Feb. 25. 2024.  An exhibition catalogue is forthcoming in late summer 2023.

Title image: Entry of North Americans into Guánica Bay. Artist: Unidentified, watercolor on canvas (c. 1898). Aldarondo & López-Bras, LLC, Attorneys at Law; Photo: John Betancourt