Extravagant Ambiguities: Siam’s Representation at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition

• In Event: Southeast Asian Elite Photographies in an Era of Colonial Anxiety

Abstract

While by the turn of the twentieth century Siam had participated for decades in overseas exhibitions in Europe and America as part of its international diplomatic imperatives, surviving photographs of Siam’s pavilion at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis suggest perhaps the most elaborate opportunity for exporting state theater up to that time. In this paper I will review a series of moments in the construction of the royal image from the previous half-century, an image crafted to be identified with the kingdom itself, before turning to the St. Louis case. What kind of image did Siam choose to present? What was the context of this particular exposition, and, beyond this, that of America’s relations with Asia in this period? This paper explores ambiguities and ironies embedded in the story of Siam at the St. Louis fair.

Author

• Caverlee Cary, University of California, Berkeley