Woman Working at the Javanese Exhibit

Woman Working at the Javanese Exhibit

This photograph shows a Javanese(presumed by curator of photograph) woman working with fabric in a replica Javanese hut. Many qualities of the photo differentiate it from the other cultural displays of the time in its ethnographic nature. It shows the woman at work, with many textiles in various forms around her, piled and stacked in different states of order and disorder. It is very much an active workspace. More so, textiles in their raw form, even if Javanese fabrics were known to be superior, are a common development across culture, one that would not in the Centennial have been though worthy to display. The hut itself seems to be fairly standard for any such fair, but how it is situated is also important in that from the limited view we can see behind it, it is backed by Palm fronds, a feature unknown to Chicago. The hut was not the scene of the display, but the world around it. They attempted to move the viewer to the ‘world’ of Java. In such, it attempted to show the Javanese in their native land, rather than as bringing their best to Chicago. The movement is reversed. The audience is able to move between many distinct world, more than displays, at their will.

Frances Benjamin Johnson

Library of Congress Photograph Collection

Library of Congress Photograph Collection

1893

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/91727856/