Everything That Belongs To Us, 2022-ongoing
My ancestors were the original inhabitants of the forest. In the catalog of exhibits for the 1904 World’s Fair, I found a number of listings associated with the names of relatives in the Horticulture, Agriculture, Forestry, Fish and Game, and Liberal Arts displays in the Philippine Village; from model houses and rare plants to mundane and everyday items like brooms and baskets. We also received a silver medal and honorable mentions for our contributions that have long since been lost. Since 1904, many of the plants that were shown in St. Louis no longer grow in my town in abundance, but can be found in botanical collections in the US. Everything That Belongs To Us is a record of my search to find those traces of my ancestors in my immediate surroundings and dispersed in archival collections across the country.
1. My banana tree in the snow, 2024. Video loop.
2. Excerpt from the Circular letter of Governor Taft and information and instructions for the preparation of the Philippine exhibit, 1904
Silver medal awarded to my town for Horticulture
The medal we received was made from melted down cannons from the Spanish-American War.
Silver-plated bronze, front and back.
2. “Model of public house”
Early 1900s model of a bahay kubo with a ceramic chicken and cat excavated in the Philippines in my ancestral region.
Background from a postcard of nipa palms, the same material used to build the house, enlarged and reprinted.
From the University of Michigan UMMAA collections and the Bentley Historical Library.
Model nipa hut that could have been from the 1904 World’s Fair in a University of Michigan warehouse.
Photo taken by Jim Moss, UMMAA collections manager.
3. “Wood specimen, straw brooms, etc.”
At home in the Philippines in 2023, I asked my uncles to show me how to make a walis tingting. We collected the coconut palm leaves from our mountain farm and completed the broom-making process from start to finish.
Photos taken by my mom.
Excerpt from the Circular letter of Governor Taft and information and instructions for the preparation of the Philippine exhibit, 1904
4. Plants from my town displayed in St. Louis: “oliva, anahaw, seeds of bayogo, buguilumbang, and saga, oil-yielding nuts, roots of sarsaparilla, and root of moras”
Handling preserved plant specimens from the Philippines at the Missouri Botanical Garden Herbarium.
Photo taken by Jordan Teisher, curator and director of the Herbarium.
5. Oliva plants
Visiting the 120-plus-year-old living cycads that were displayed at the 1904 World’s Fair at Missouri Botanical Garden.
Photo taken by Ben Deloso, MOBOT cycad specialist.
My snapshots of cycads and other Philippine plants in the Climatron. C-prints, 4x4 inches.
6. “Model of fish-corral”
I asked my mom to draw a salakab (fish trap) for me.
I matched her drawing to the one that looked most like it in Penn Museum collections from the 1904 World’s Fair.
Found Offering, 2024. Items purchased at a St. Louis estate sale: 1. Handcarved fish made in the Philippines and sold by Midwest Importers. 2. 120-year-old souvenir plate from the 1904 World’s Fair.
To find:
7. “Rice hulling machine”
8. “Hand sickles and atab”
© 2024 Janna Añonuevo Langholz. All rights reserved.