so we're here at the national portrait gallery, and there's this. 1898 exhibit. why is this here in chicago? what are we what are we trying to tell people with this one? well, this is a very important

exhibition. it's titled 18 1898 us imperialism, visions and revisions and it really marks a milestone in our efforts to shine a light on overlooked aspects of u.s. history that have been crucial to determine our present and that have been really unexamined. and so in this case, we are taking a look at the events that turned the united states into a world power in 1898. those events were what u.s. textbooks called the spanish-american war, which my co-curator, kate clarke lemay, and i prefer to call the war of 1898, because that way we can consider other countries that were part of that conflict. right. not just the us and spain, but also guam, cuba, the philippines, puerto rico, the joint resolution to annex hawaii, which happens during the war of 1898 and the philippine-american war, which

happens on the heels of the war of 1898. and as a consequence of the united states not recognizing the claims of independence, that for the philippines that emilio aguinaldo had stated. so we are telling the story of these events that happened 125 years ago through portraiture. why do we make that decision to do it that way? well, that way we can make this history personal. we can understand the agency of different individuals in this history. i think the us public is perhaps more familiar with figures such as theodore roosevelt. you know, who was second in command of the roughriders, for example. and there's a whole mythology around him, right? or president william mckinley. but what we do in this exhibition is that we put those portraits in conversation with portraits of figures from cuba, from puerto rico, from guam, from the philippines, from hawaii. in order to complete that

narrative, to complete the history, to present the different perspectives, and really to provide a panoramic outlook into these history. well, we do start with president mckinley. he's right here, 25th, president of the united states. why is he important to this story? well, he was the president of the united states during the war of 1898. and this is a fascinating portrait. it's a portrait that was painted by the preeminent 19th century puerto rican artist francisco estatal, who is really known for his intention to create a vocabulary of puerto. we can visual identity through portraits of puerto rico's intellectuals, through landscapes of the island, through still lifes of tropical fruit. here, however, he's doing something very different. he has created he has painted a portrait of the president of the united states and in his hand, he is holding a map of puerto

rico. you can see the west coast of the island and it says east la ville, puerto rico, julio de cinco miller, jose antonio intellectuals. so it has a date. july 25th, 1898, which is the day that the united states invaded puerto rico through the coast of blanca. in other words, order is chronic in this moment of transition. when puerto rico passed from being under spanish sovereignty to being under us sovereignty and he is positioning himself in front of mckinley as a possible portraitist under the new regime. he's an artist that has to negotiate his own place there to feed himself. right. so he's he's looking for a job, but he's also depicting this moment through his own eyes. and what fascinates me about this work is that you could replace that map by a map of cuba by a map of the philippines, by a map of guam.

and it becomes a metaphor of this whole geopolitical turning point. you know, the the destiny, the fate of these islands and archipelagos are in the hands of the united states. so was the united states already a superpower or thinking about this before mckinley, or is mckinley the one that leads us to to think about expansion? he is one of the leaders of that moment who leads us to think about expansion. but it's very complicated because he wasn't initially for u.s. intervention in cuba. however he was, he became convinced that it was the right thing to do. over the course of several months. there are, however, several politicians around him who are very much proposing a new vision of the united states as a country that is ready for something to occupy a new position in the world as a as a world power. well, speaking of those politicians, this isn't

necessarily one of them, but i know one of the doctrines that they were definitely talking about was probably the monroe doctrine. right. and monroe is also in this exhibit. yes. he's right over here. yes. yes. and for my co-curator, kate lemay and i, it was very important to present the prequel to this moment of overseas expansion. this is not something that happens out of the blue. territorial expansion is foundational to the united states, even since the 13 colonies and when the u.s. becomes an independent nation. one of the touchstones of what will become exploring policy is what will be called the monroe doctrine, which was a message uttered by president james monroe, the fifth president of the united states, in december of 1823. at the tail end of the wars of independence of latin america, where he states that the united

states will oppose the recolonization of those new republics of latin america by europe. so it's an anti colonial message, but at the same time, he asserts that the united states will be the main power in the western hemisphere. so he asserts the united states sphere of influence over the western hemisphere and that message will become really crucial for politicians later in the 19th century to once a mid-19th century and late 19th century as a guide to assert that influence. and one of the times when they thought about the monroe doctrine to assert that influence is actually when we talked about our westward expansion right here in the united states, right? yes. and so it was very important for us as co-curator was to to

allude to the different ways through which the united states accomplished that territorial expansion. certainly the displacement of native americans, the persecution of native americans was one main way in which the united states government accomplished that. and so this is a portrait of sitting bull, who was papa lakota and who was a main leader, who one of the many indigenous leaders who oppose that u.s. territory expansion. in this exhibition, we counter pose his portrait with that of nelson miles, who persecuted the lakota us after the battle of greasy grass and captured sitting bull. this portrait was taken in captivity. and the juxtaposition of both portraits allows us to point to the indian wars of the 1860s, seventies and eighties as an

important moment of training, if you will, for many of the main military figures who led the war of 1898 and the philippine-american war and who had cut their teeth, if you will, persecuting native americans and subjugate them before then going overseas. right. so you said that the story of sitting bull and nelson miles were intertwined and you also included him in the exhibit. but he's important not not just because, as you mentioned, he was entwined with sitting bull, but he actually starts off this entire war of 1898, as you mentioned before. yes. well, he is the commanding general of the us army in 1898 and he will be in charge of the puerto rico campaign. and he's one of the many generals who have experience.

if you will, persecuting native americans and who will implement that he even. it's very interesting because on this label we found even we included a reference where he compared the ships, the us ships going around the island of puerto rico to his experience in the plains in the indian plains, persecuting native americans. who is this gentleman? and so we have here senator henry cabot lodge, who was a very prestigious political figure from the end of the 19th century, towards 1890. he became he started becoming very prominent as a politician. and really pushing a new vision for the united states as a country that at the dawn of the new century had the possibility of positioning itself as a world

power. it was time for a new stage in the history of the country where we had to stop looking inwards and sort of take, you know, the united states had to take its rightful stage in the world. and so he thought that in order to accomplish that sea power was crucial. well, let's talk about sea power in the u.s.. so at this time, the united states was deciding it wanted to be a naval power. tell us why naval power was important at that time. well, operating in my hand, the naval theorist had written these very important treaties that became a bestseller worldly. it was translated into 12 languages. the influence of sea power upon history was titled right, and it was a book that traced how world powers had achieved their status by conquering overseas outposts.

and it established sort of a blueprint for the united states to become also a naval power through the modernization of its navy. its, you know, modernization of its ships, its construction of new steel ships, and through claiming outposts overseas that would allow would allow it to have trading posts, to have a naval presence there. and so that theory became absolutely crucial to that moment. people like senator henry cabot lodge and his political ally, theodore roosevelt, were very much seduced by it and said, okay, this is our plan. this is what we need to do. it's very interesting, you know, how history happens, right? sort of a confluence of events across places at the same time as these figures were thinking about naval power, strengthening

the us navy, modernizing it. cuba was fighting its third war of independence over the course of the last, you know, since 80, 68, it had been involved in several wars of independence. and in 1895, it had started a new war that was having some success. and the united states was sort of keeping a close eye on it, because it had a lot of commercial interests there. the u.s. was the main purchaser of cuban sugar since the 1850s, and it was also the main refiner of cuban sugar. so there were a lot of economic interests of the us in cuba. so in cuba, the as the cuban war of independence is happening, the united states sends the uss maine, a warship to the coast of

havana, to protect us interests from all from the conflict, from the from the war between the spaniards and the cuban liberation army. and this is in early 1898, as the ship is there on february 15. it explodes right. and so it probably explodes because there was people think that well, there were several investigations. probably there was a fire in the furnaces. but the yellow press rushes to blame spain for sabotage and it says it was probably a mine. and and then certain politicians, including theodore roosevelt, align with that theory that it was spain and push for a war that has the potential of yielding. colonial outposts or or territories that the us could

where the us could assert its sea power. so the uss maine explode in havana harbor and there are several months of intensive raid over the whether the united states should intervene in the cuban war of independence. and the result is that indeed, on april in late april of 1888, the united states declares war against spain, and it does so with the pretext of helping cubans shed or liberate themselves from the spanish colonial yoke. it's very interesting that the first battle of the war of 1888, or the so-called spanish-american war does not happen in cuba. however, it happens in manila bay. in the philippines. the philippines was also a possession of of spain and the united states thought that it was important to defeat spain,

not just in cuba, but along its crumbling empire. so assistant secretary of the navy theodore roosevelt, gives the order to commodore george dewey, who is in charge of the asiatic squadron in hong kong, to move his ships to manila. and then he defeats the spanish flotilla. so here in this painting that we have behind us, we see the as yet the the asiatic squadron defeating the spanish flotilla, which is all in disarray and smoking in the background. as you can see. so let's go into cuba now and find out what happened there. this gentleman has quite a presence. tell me about him. yeah, well, that is to say, marty, in a portrait by artist miranda de niro, who was a cuban artist, who in the 1940. so posthumously after a long

after marty had died, was one of the main responsible artists to cement the image of marty in cuban art history. he created many, many portraits of him in different guises as an intellectual, as a member of the cuban liberation army, where he died fighting the war very early on in that last war of independence in 1895. marty was the ideologue, the person who conceived that last war of independence. he was he's a very important intellectual of cuba and of latin america. he was a diplomat. he was someone who dedicated his life to fight against the spanish colonial regime. and in since 1880, he had lived in the united states, in new york, he spent the last 15 years of his life in exile in new york, where there was a very important, very fast cuban community of people who objected

to the spanish colonial regime and who were organizing to gain independence. and actually, this was not just a circle of cubans, but also of puerto ricans. it was cubans of puerto ricans were collaborating together in new york to achieve that. and so he puts forward the idea of a war that is necessary. and lagouranis, this idea, he calls it, and he works together with maximo gomez and antonio maceo, who are two generals of the first war of independence of cuba. and they lead the third working dependance. they're making significant progress to which the spaniards respond with very retaliatory measures, very repressive measures. in 1896, for example, general, a waiter establishes a system of concentration of non part of the

non fighting population who lives in the countryside and who is suspected of aiding the cuban liberation army. and so they're all moved to fortified, surveilled towns that don't have proper sanitation, proper food, and so there is, you know, hundreds of thousands of people die. so it becomes a human rights crisis. the united states is watching over wondering whether it should intervene. the us has made explodes and then that becomes the pretext, you know, to declare war against spain, to help the cubans achieve their independence. that idea has a certain support within cuba, within the cuban liberation army. and so that's what happened. so us intervenes and we help from the cuban liberation army with intelligence from the cuban

liberation army, they're able to defeat the spaniards. and even though the war had been billed as an effort to help cubans reach independence, the united states does not turn the island to the cubans immediately. it establishes a military government. and leonard wood, who was the leader of the rough riders and who had come in, come up in the ranks, in the military ranks before that, during the apache wars. and here he is wearing his medal of honor that he won for his service in the apache wars, becomes in december of 1899. the military governor of cuba and the one who will be in power for the longest. he will be also crucial for

establishing the us oversight over cuban affairs after the us turns the island to the cubans and gives them their independence. in 1902. and that's what jose marti had been wanting all along. exactly. well, let's go and see what's happening in the next exhibit. so we've decided to get involved in affairs across the water with everyone in favor of this? not at all. it's very interesting that 125 years from the war, you have the impression that this was sort of unavoidable, perhaps. but there was a lot of opposition to the war. there was an organization that got together in november of 1898 that was called the anti-imperialist league, and it assembled a very wide range of

people that opposed the annexation of lands that could come as a result of the war of 1898 and of the philippine american war that followed in the heels of the war of 1898. and so what's very interesting is that even though the many different figures that came together under this organization action had the main argument that the united states should not become a it should not annex all these lands because it was a republic, and that would turn the republic into an empire. they had different rationales for doing so. so we had people, for example, like samuel clemens, mark twain, right. who had more of an internationalist anti-imperial perspective. he had traveled through the world and he had considered the theme of imperial power very deeply. it's very interesting that

initially when the us declared war against spain to liberate the cubans, he was in favor of the war. but once the treaty of paris that ended the war was signed, he saw that the united states intended to keep the philippines puerto rico. and so he said, he said, this is not what we signed up for and we should not follow this back. this will turn us into an imperial nation and the united states is, by definition, through its own history and anti-imperial and anti-colonial country. and did he write about this? he did write about it. he's very acerbic, biting, acid style. he wrote that the flag that the united states should be raising over the philippines should have the stars replaced with skulls and bones and the stripes, the red and white stripes replaced, replaced with black and white to

symbolize the violence that the united states was carrying on in the philippines. so there were other people that weren't that also weren't in favor, were they not in favor for the same reasons? what about this gentleman? they were not in favor for the same reasons. so here we have to my right, benjamin tillman, who was a senator for south carolina. now, he had been a governor at the beginning of the 1890s, and he was someone who was famously, very virulently racist. he had been an architect of voter suppression laws against black people in the south. he was someone who well, under his leadership as a senator, there were more lynchings carried out in south carolina than ever before. and so in the context of the war of 1898, he led a faction of people who opposed the annexation of the philippines in particular, because it would bring all these different ethno linguistic groups that are part of the philippines, an

archipelago with more than 7000 islands under the us and the racial mixing that would come out of that process would, in his words, degrade the white anglo-saxon race. so this is an instance of a an exhibition where we can exhibit a portrait of someone with such objectionable ideas, you know, within its proper context in order to indeed include that as part of the story, which was an important point in the debate against imperialism. we don't always think about women at this time being able to have a strong voice in these matters. but you've included jane adams here as well. we did include jane addams. jane addams was also a very important voice within the anti-imperialist league. she was a social reformist and a

number of women who participated, who were advocates of women's suffrage, identified with this moment of imperialism overseas and with the disempower our ment of populations that would come from it. in the case of jane addams. she thought, well, the united states has already a presence in the philippines through this war. we need to now democratize the situation because we are a country that stands for democracy. we cannot impose our government without the consent of the governed. and so that was her position. and in the end, she won a nobel peace prize. she did win a nobel peace prize. yes. well, let's find out what's happening around the globe while we're discussing this at home. while debate was happening back

in the united states, what was happening in puerto rico? so puerto rico, along with cuba, was the kuban. puerto rico were the last remaining colonies of spain in the caribbean and the americas, actually. and in both of them, 1868 was a turning point. both of them launched their anti-colonial struggles against spain in 1868. there was a botched revolution in puerto rico. the grito hillary's. and they're after their is a movement to establish autonomy on the island. so that means self-government. puerto ricans organize within the island to remain overseas province of spain, while having autonomy over local affairs and through many years of struggles where there is lots of repression. initial lee very much, you know,

lots of violence against the advocates of that cause. there is finally. in 1897, november of 1897, spain grants autonomy to puerto rico, and it says that it will establish an automatic autonomy charter with puerto rico having its own local government. that process starts. and here we have luis munoz rivera, who was a main advocate of that autonomy cause and who will become elected the leader of that autonomy cabinet. eight days before the us invasion of puerto rico, which leaves that autonomy charter moot essentially. so it takes the power away from it. it's very interesting, however, that there is a certain cautious optimism about the arrival of

the united states into puerto rico. so when the us invades through guanacaste, it encounters little military opposition, mainly because the south was more disenchanted with the spanish colonial authorities than the north, and there was less of a colonial military presence there. so. eventually, two days after the day of the invasion, july 25th, on july 28th, the us arrives into the city of pulitzer, which is a main economic capital of the south, and the us is received with a certain openness and a sort of, let's see, attitude and let's wait and see. let's see if these is good for puerto ricans. if finally we can achieve a more democratic government on their

the twitter ship of the united states. if we can achieve modernization, if we can achieve economic prosperity. so luis munoz rivera is one of the main leaders of autonomy, of autonomy, some of the autonomy movement he had been lobbying for that cause under spain. and then he becomes the main politician in the transition from spanish to u.s. sovereignty. in 1900. he will oppose the establishment of the foreigner act, which replaces the military government that the us initially established after the invasion in puerto rico, that no civil government in 1900 had very few. recognized very few rights for puerto ricans and gave them very, very limited local partnership. it was actually a throwback. you know, two decades earlier, from in comparison to what they had achieved with the autonomy

charter. so it was a huge disappointment. and he will become a main politician fighting for more rights for the mainly for the economic elite, then in puerto rico and in 1911, he will become the commissioner, resident of puerto rico in the united states. so that's why you see the us capital in the back here. that's a the position that puerto rico as a non incorporated territory still has right in congress. it's a congressional presence that has a voice but no right to vote. so, taina, i know that you are originally from puerto rico. what what did you learn about this time or what did you learn that maybe you didn't even know? as someone who's from puerto rico yourself? well, this exhibition was very personal to me because it is it

embodies. i feel my personal history as in the way that i connect to the united states right. historically, as a puerto rican, i feel that the most interesting part was understanding the broader context. these approach that my co-curator caitlin mae and i desire to to undertake this panoramic approach, this comparative approach was incredibly enriching to see what were the struggles happening in the different countries that came under us sovereignty and how those struggles lasted for decades after. diana carroll, thank you. thank you very much, kate. and now i'm with co-curator caitlin mae to get the pacific side of the story talking about hawaii, guam and the philippines. wow. this is quite impressive. what's going on here? well, it's nice to meet you and thank you for this opportunity.

this is a portrait of queen, the colony by william cogswell. it was painted in 1891 to 1892. you can tell from the signature, which is signed 1892 and the queen was the last reigning monarch of hawaii. she is pictured here in a very large grand manner, neoclassical portrait. so you can tell the sort of neoclassical styling from the way in which the curtain embraces the the the sides of the picture plane and is drawn back to reveal this sort of picturesque landscape in the background. and it's a full size portrait. and she's looking at us with this stately kind of command of power as a female head of state. the hawaiian constitution from 1852 outlined that the hawaiian people would be ruled through a constitutional monarchy, so they elected their rulers. her brother, david kalakaua,

died in 1891, and the queen came into the hawaiian throne at a very troubled moment in which anglo businessmen, who had settled in hawaii since the 1820s, had built up so much power. they were starting to take over the political landscape. and so the queen knew that she needed to communicate her power to western eyes in such a way that they would understand she was the sovereign ruler of hawaiian kingdom, and that in her power she was also, you know very well sort of appointed. you can see the attributes. this is a fancy nizam word, word that we use to point to the things that she's wearing. so there is a hair comb in the shape of a butterfly that's made out of diamonds. and that was a gift to her from

queen victoria, the sovereign of england. only royalty would give other royalty such gifts like that, so that symbol of her own recognition as a sovereign ruler by another sovereign has made it into this portrait to attach to the queen's rightful reign. this really is an important diplomatic statement that the queen fought from the artist in 1892 and then placed on view in the alani palace, which is the seat of the hawaiian government. she was hoping that this portrait would make it very clear to those anglo businessmen that hawaiian native hawaiians were in charge, that she was in charge of her kingdom. but unfortunate lately, her kingdom was overthrown. in 1893 with the support of

marines from the uss boston. and this was a very diplomatic situation from the united states point of view, as well as the hawaiian point of view. but basically, the queen and her people were outgunned. they had no arms. they had no ways to really defend themselves. so although this portrait we underscore stand it to be this really important symbol of her power in the she her kingdom was overthrown. and that was the first step to the 1898 annexation of hawaii by the united states. so how does what's happening with the annexation of hawaii fit into the larger picture of u.s. expansion in 1898, the annexation of hawaii in 1898 was sort of part of the xigaze. that was part of the moment, is that in the 1890s, henry cabot lodge, you know, had his on annexing hawaii ever since he had been elected to be a senator of massachusetts. and so china had described, you

know, the sea power that was necessary for empire. hawaii was really part of that. the us congressmen like lodge. along with the naval theorists mohan and the other men in, they were really fixated on hawaii. it just happened that the the war of 1898. so the war with spain was also happening and it was the right moment to push past that overthrow and go ahead and annex hawaii. and this is through joint resolution. so a total vote of the us house of representatives and the congress. so the total vote of congress instead of one part of the congress passing thing and the treaty to annex. and then the other part, they did a total vote. that's basically a shortcut because they knew they wouldn't have the right votes in the house of representatives. the annexation has been

contested by hawaiians ever since. and you can imagine how hurtful and how painful this history is for many native hawaiians to this day, especially since after the overthrow, the queen was imprisoned for eight months and her lands were seized. about $20 million is estimated to be owed to her. that was never paid, despite her attempts for reparations, essentially throughout the rest of her life. so she's had this portrait made to prove that she's a power player. and then she's kind of pushed aside and isn't a power player any longer. what happens to this portrait? how does it end up here? well, the portrait has been on loan to us since march of 2023. and it's the first time it ever left honolulu. it was the first time it was ever taken off the wall of the iolani palace. aside from conservation and we were really to work with native

hawaiian groups to make sure that they support this loan because it is such an important symbol to hawaiian history. native hawaiians also believe that her spirit or her mana is imbued in this portrait. and so we were able to welcome a contingent or delegation of native hawaiians to the portrait gallery when the exhibition opened and they conducted a blessing of the queen to welcome her into this space. and it was really beautiful. it was such an honor for us to be able to work with that community, to bring this incredible portrait to the national portrait gallery for this exhibition. we talked a little bit about why the states was interested in hawaii. let's talk about when they how they first got there. and and why they were so interested. it looks like she actually

passed in 1830. why are we including her in this exhibit? well, this is harriet bradford, tiffany's stuart, another neoclassical style portrait. so, again, save the curve of the drape across sort of the background that's revealing this very picturesque pastoral background. i was convinced that this island that you see was hawaii, but it's actually not. it's from cooperstown. it's lake oswego, from where she grew up. and we have this portrait on view because she was part the missionaries that came from new england to go to christianize hawaii in the 1820s. and there are several ships. and so we know that harriet bradford, tiffany spirit was on second ship and these are the the group of anglo-saxons from the united states who went to hawaii, and then many of them stayed. and so, along with anglos from europe, this is the group people

that then created such power for themselves of that they started to push out native hawaiians from their own citizenship rights like voting them and things that are sort of to us would mean democratic ways of of governing. native hawaiians were starting to lose those rights when the descendants of the missionary kids started to come into their own political power. so this is when the society of hawaii was really starting to change. yes. yeah. this is the beginning. well, certainly a lot was happening in hawaii at this time. but we also need to hear a little bit about guam. yes. let's go. so now we've gone a bit farther away in the pacific. we've gotten to guam. how does this fit into the 1898 story? so guam was actually seized as an island for a calling station. if you can think about sea power and how the us was expanding the pacific. those ships, those those

battleships, they needed to recall because they're powered by steam. so in order to get to the philippines, they had to stop in places like hawaii or guam. guam was seized in 1898 and the spanish didn't even realize that the united states was at war with spain. they basically fired a salute to the uss charleston, which was captained by henry glass and then were informed that actually, you know, the u.s. was now in control. and so once the us was in control, they asserted themselves in ways that were objectionable to the china, which is the name for the indigenous people of guam, because the spanish had been there for so long, most of guam indians, the residents of guam, including the temaru, had converted to catholicism. and so when the us comes in, they found that the spanish priests had wives and they were practicing catholicism in a way

that was objectionable to how the u.s. viewed religious practice. and that's when archbishop placid lewis chapelle, whose portrait is just over my shoulder. that's why he comes up from his responsibility to of mexico. so he was actually responsible for all of the pacific, for the vatican and the dioceses in this area is huge. and he's you know, on a steamship, he comes up and he's trying to meet with the generals in charge of this area, the philippines and guam. so this is general otis and general wheeler and these two army officials refuse to meet with the archbishop. and so there was a lot of enforcing of these rules and regulations against the ways in which the guam indians are practicing the religion. that did not sit well with the temaru.

there's another portrait just just left to the portrait of the archbishop. and this is a padre palomo, who was a general priest. and he started to negotiate for the guam indians with the us rule. so the naval governor that had been appointed in charge, guam, was this man named richard o'leary. and so the temaru leader, padre palomo, was trying to, you know, say, look, you know, governor o'leary, this is what we do here. this is making everyone very upset. we're not able to practice our high fees, stays our religion and celebrate of the high status of this catholic religion. we understand that you have a different way of doing things, but can't we do this or that? and so there's a diplomatic element to this history that we wanted to recognize, because it goes into how empire and its expansion of its bounds really affect these islands and the residents of these islands was

also obviously very important to the founding of united states. so, you know, it goes right along with the american founding story. but how did the united states react to what was going on here? they didn't react with a lot of generosity. so the indians were not allowed to have their own self-governance. and in organizing their voice, they started to sign petitions that they would send to the governor and then to congress to ask for the right for self-governance and actually, padre palomo signed this petition as well as attanasio pérez, who is pictured to the right of the archbishop right here. given the united states own history of religious liberties, how did the people in the united states react to what was going on in guam? well, they may not have known very much what was going on in guam, because it's so far away. but the guam indians were really

organizing amongst themselves for this the right for self-government. they there was the petition that i mentioned from 1901, that was one of a petitions that we know of. and guam remained under naval rule. that's military rule until 1950. this is probably something that people don't know about. guam after 1950. the us president appointed a governor to be the representative governor of guam and guam indians were still unsatisfied. and of course, because they wanted again the right to their own cratic elections. so they elected their first governor in 1970. and since then, guam has been represented to the united states as an unincorporated territory through through the governor that guam indian residents elect. so it became a territory in 1898 and remains a territory today. it does. so we've come to the philippines, which is where the

first shots were actually fired in the war of 1898. tell us who this gentleman is. this is philippe agoncillo, who was an advisor to emilio aguinaldo. emilio aguinaldo was one of the two organizing. tagalog guys who resisted first against the spanish. so, like in cuba, filipinos were fighting a war against spain. and then when the united states intervenes, the us actually did not know sort of what to do. they had a number of soldiers, the nebraskan voluntary infantry in manila after the battle of manila bay. and these soldiers had a very simmering kind of tension with the soldiers led by aldo. and that is when the philippine-american war starts in february of 1899. so the war of 1898 kind of puts

the us in the philippines and then they engage with a war against the philippines that was led by again, aldo and aguinaldo. again was advised by this man, agoncillo so when the filipino american war is ongoing, it's interesting because the war of 1888 concludes and the philippines were purchased by the u.s. from spain for $20 million, according to the treaty of paris, which was ratified in 1899. agoncillo. went first to washington, d.c., december four to try to represent the philippines interests and denied any meeting with mckinley in washington. he then went to paris. and followed up with a group of other commissioners from cuba, from the philippines and puerto rico. and this group, i think tainan

probably mentioned them. it's really important for us to recognize that representatives of the former colonies of spain were attempting to have a voice in the treaty that was being signed by spain and the us, which really only addressed spanish and american interests. it did not address the fact that there is an ongoing war that the us was waging against filipinos in the philippines. and this is a very, very complex war. it lasted until 1913. some historians recognize as further engagements of battle after 1913. but what's interesting about it is that it's really unheard of. people do not talk about the philippine-american war precisely because it was very brutal. very ugly. it involved guerilla warfare. it was one of those wars that i don't think the us is sort proud of to this day.

so it's better swept under the rug. but this portrait really helps understand some of this history. and you can see how dignified he is. he's got his fob watch. he's got his arm tucked behind. i mean, he's in this sort of dignified position because he wants to be taken seriously. so we're really proud of having this portrait on view. we brought it from the national library of the philippines and shipped it over from the philippines to the portuguese. and i think this is the first time this portrait has ever been on the air in the united states. well, you know, we started with mckinley and now we're going to go and see his vice president at the time. we're going to go see roosevelt. let's do it. well, people will probably know this person. vice president roosevelt will at this time actually. probably president roosevelt. right. he bookends the story. he does. and this is a portrait of him by john singer. sergeant. this is one of four paintings by sergeant we have in the gallery in this exhibition.

so there's more fields story. leonard wood, henry cabot lodge. and here, theodore roosevelt. all by sergeant. this painting was done when roosevelt was president. he was vice president. and then became president after mckinley was assassinated in 1901. and so roosevelt, as you remember, he was this kind of career climb guy. and he was very interested in his own masculine image. so he immediately volunteered as a rough rider. he actually organizes this volland here infantry group to go to cuba and to make sure that he was part of the charge, you know, leading the way in certain battles. once he was a rough rider in his brooks brothers uniform. so we have this great charles gibson portrait of him as a rough rider. he then is very much involved in empire making.

so he serves in cuba and he serves with leonard wood, who was the sort of other co-organizer of the rough riders and wood was actually a physician and so he treated mckinley as a physician as well. and our portrait of wood by a sergeant actually shows wearing a medal of honor that he was given after the apache wars for capturing geronimo. so there's this long sort of, you know, thread if you will, of empire making across the us that wood actually symbolizing in that portrait through that medal of honor. so once roosevelt is in office as president, what does he do to further us expansion? so what it does is he signs a number of laws like the platt amendment, which actually gives the u.s. the power to intervene in cuban government if the any sort of perception of democracy

is being threatened. and it also lays the foundation for the u.s. to keep a military base, which we know now as guantanamo bay. and so the platt amendment, one folio of it is actually on the wall next to this portrait of roosevelt. the other thing he does is he signs the roosevelt corollary, which builds on that monroe doctrine of 1823. and it actually takes it one step further. that, again, allows for intervention into governments in latin america whose democracy is perceived as being threatened by the u.s. so gives a sort of carte blanche for us intervening in the western hemisphere. building on that monroe doctrine. and he's also kind of building on mckinley's plans for what was happening when was first in office. yeah, he does. i mean, mckinley probably didn't have as much of a vision that roosevelt does. roosevelt, for example, was in

charge of the of creating the panama canal and making it happen. the panama canal zone is still some parts are still under u.s. influence, but much of it has been purchased by the chinese which is a really interesting kind of twist to the idea of sea power and in whose hands lie sea power today. we talked about roosevelt as as a diplomat we talked about what he was doing that during this time. why in this john singer sergeant painting is he posed in this way? well, sergeant was really going to irritated with roosevelt and roosevelt was getting irritated, sergeant, because they couldn't figure out the right pose. and so roosevelt being roosevelt, he suddenly turns and is just like, okay, that's it. i'm out of here by like i'm done with this sitting, which is what we call the the, you know, sort of session between an artist who's painting another person. so the sitting is basically being called over. and you can tell that he's like

in command, you know, he's like, done. and he just put his hand on the new war, which is the sort of banister, the ball that's decorative of the beginning of the staircase banister. and it's got his hand on his hip. and he's very much in that arrogant, like, i'm a this is done, we're done, you know, kind of pose. and sergeant then just said, oh, this is it. it's perfect. let's that's that's the pose that we need. and so he painted roosevelt in this very commanding, arrogant way. what do you think that tells us anything about what he thought about these nations that we've been talking about in the exhibit? i think it's a good conclusion for us land on because it bookends the the the time period that we're talking about through the americas presidents which is something that the national portrait gallery endeavors to do. we endeavor to tell the history of the u.s. presidency. and it also yeah, i think it really does kind of give visitors a taste of roosevelt's character the way in which he

was in command, even of his own image. i mean, he published a book, a memoir about his time as a rough rider and that was then made into a board game. i mean, this man really knew how to reach the millions, if you will. so i think this is a great portrait to end on now that we've gone through the exhibit, what are some myths or miscues sections that you think have been that you've found or that you think people find when they come through? i think that people will understand that this was not the spanish-american war, which is so often, you know, the name that we used to refer to this conflict. but they'll understand that the war of 1898 really affect did a lots of different islands. and part of that xigaze of that moment of expansion included hawaii, even though it wasn't part of the war of 1898. and so what tain and i are hoping people do is come here to

learn about the perspectives outside of the us. perspectives of islands that are not part of the continental bounds of the u.s. that's what i begin to say. and to see how the us has shaped world hedges money like me, influence of us across the world earlier than world war two. it actually starts in 1898 and that is the beginning of a us world power that we we still have to this day. so i know that you're involved in or you're interested in military history as a military historian. what did you take away from this exhibit as you were curating it? i took away so much, but i think art is a really great way for military historians to kind of unpack some of the nuances of these very difficult and complex chapters of history. the for example, the hawaii chapter of 1898 is so painful

and and we are able to actually engage with native hawaiians about this history in a federal institution. so not a likely institution to talk about annexation, but we were able to do so through a portrait and we can serve the portraits frame. we were able to really help the lifeline of this object. but we're bringing history to a much wider audience outside of the us. and so i think that's one of the cool things i've learned about, you know, from curating this exhibition is that objects can really facilitate conversations that otherwise we might not be able to have. caitlin may co-curator of this exhibit 1898 here at the national portrait gallery. thanks so much for being with us on american history tv. kate. burke. so.

talk about the sky right show? it's