Dean Worcester: Picturing the Philippines in the Early 20th Century

Friday, September 14th, 2018

Follow this link to watch Mark Rice’s presentation on YouTube.

The TR Site’s August Speaker Nite featured Dr. Mark Rice, a professor in the American Studies Department at St. John Fisher College. His presentation, "Picturing the Philippines in the Early Twentieth Century: Dean C. Worcester in the Pages of National Geographic”, explored the way photography, Dean C. Worcester, and National Geographic intersected at the turn of the previous century. The effect of which shaped American perceptions of imperialism in the Philippines and cemented National Geographic as the publishing powerhouse it was for much of the 20th century. Though Worcester does not appear in many of the written histories of the magazine, he is a key figure at the very center of the entwined histories of National Geographic and American colonialism.

Worcester’s involvement in the Philippines began when he participated in two zoological expeditions between 1887 and 1893. The first as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, and the second as part of a two-year zoological expedition funded by Louis F. Menage. Shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Worcester published “The Philippine Islands and their People” in National Geographic, which established him as one of the country’s leading authorities on the islands. He was subsequently appointed to the First Philippine Commission in 1899 by President McKinley. The Commission was established to make recommendations on how the U.S. should proceed after the sovereignty of the Philippines was ceded to the United States by Spain following the Treaty of Paris (1898). Worcester was the only member to be reappointed to the Second Philippine Commission, which became the sole legislative authority in the Philippines for more than a decade. Worcester also served as the Secretary of the Interior of the Philippines for 13 years, where he had broad authority to shape policy that pertained to the non-Christian minority groups on the islands.

It was in these various capacities that Worcester’s relationship with National Geographic began. Between 1898 and 1913, Worcester contributed 5 lengthy articles to the magazine and his photographs appeared alongside many articles written by other authors. In fact, Worcester’s photographs helped create and popularize the magazine’s signature ethnographic aesthetic. In the early years of the 20th century National Geographic was a respected, influential, and increasingly popular publication. Given its global orientation, the magazine played a critical role in helping American readers learn about and understand the countries it featured. As a measure of its interest in the Philippines, National Geographic published over 40 articles on the topic between 1898 and 1913; Dean Worcester wrote five of those articles. However, his impact on National Geographic reached much further. Worcester was involved in what Dr. Rice referred to as three hallmark episodes in the magazine’s early history that significantly shaped the future of the publication.

The first of these events occurred in June of 1898, when National Geographic published an edition titled “The Philippine Number”, which preceded the American acquisition of the islands. Worcester contributed an article called “Notes on Some Primitive Philippine Tribes”, which was mainly his observations of the minority non-Christian groups. However, while he claimed that his observations included a representative cross section of the population, in reality they over-exaggerated the numerical significance of the tribes he discussed. At the time, the population of the Philippines was overwhelmingly Christian and Hispanicized. Yet, Worcester described the islands as an exotic destination that would prove difficult for whatever country took control of it, not that there was any real doubt that it would be the U.S.  This image of the islands that Worcester created was instrumental in shaping American perceptions of the indigenous population.

Five years after the first hallmark episode, Worcester was involved in a second key event. In 1902, National Geographic editor Gilbert Grosvenor was inspired to make the magazine more lucid and concise, in order to appeal to general rather than academic interests with an abundance of photographs. This contradicted the views of then-Vice President of the National Geographic Society William McGee, who wanted to maintain the magazine’s status as a serious scientific journal, and believed superficial explanation and pictorial illustration should be subordinate to the explanation of ideas and principles. Ultimately, Grosvenor prevailed and his vision was taken a step further in 1903, when a Worcester photo of two bare-breasted women was published, cementing the policy of regularly including such images . Worcester’s photography style was precisely the kind of ethnographic imagery Grosvenor wanted to emphasize. That decision and the precedent set by Worcester’s photography became one of National Geographic’s lasting legacies.

The third significant moment was the 1905 publication  of photographs from the first comprehensive survey of the islands after the United States took control. The inclusion of these photographs illustrates how close of a relationship the National Geographic Society had with the federal government, as well as Worcester’s centrality in that relationship. In fact, the Society and the government worked together on the census. The government appreciated the ability to convey its operations in the Philippines directly to the people, and the magazine enjoyed access to the government’s information and images which could be used for publication. The majority of the images used in the census report were taken either by Worcester or the official government photographer, Charles Mar. National Geographic’s issue on the census featured 32 pages of photographs, the popularity of which significantly increased readership.

While the census was of interest to many Americans, it also influenced the way the people viewed the Filipino population. The U.S. government used the information they collected to distinguish between what they deemed to be “civilized” and “uncivilized groups”. According to the census, there were 8 civilized tribes and 16 uncivilized tribes. The language used to describe the groups reinforced the idea that the Philippines was not a nation, but rather a collection of tribes incapable of governing themselves. These notions significantly influenced opinions of American colonial policy. Worcester’s own beliefs made their way into the pages of National Geographic where he actually took these notions one step further. In his later articles, he routinely framed his discussions around the idea of the “white man’s burden.” His status as a significant and credible government official in the Philippines gave his opinions even more weight. These views helped legitimize the government’s colonial presence and the policies Worcester himself was involved in making.

In his later National Geographic articles, Worcester wrote about the civilizing force of the colonial government and how his policies encouraged the non-Christian tribes to abandon some of their more “barbaric” practices. Worcester was genuinely proud of his efforts and explained how he had been able to accomplish his goals. He claimed he had enormous success in civilizing the non-Christian tribes by following the simple policy of providing them with a “square deal.” In actual fact, he created a structure in which he warned that certain courses of action (barbaric practices) would illicit repercussions (punishment) in much the way that a parent establishes boundaries with a child. These ideas only heralded the colonial government further and when published in a magazine with a widespread circulation, reinforced the notion that the American colonial government was a necessity.

Dr. Rice’s presentation went on to explore many of Worcester’s other ideas. Dr. Rice repeatedly mentioned that almost all of Worcester’s views were deeply flawed. He was an imperialist and had a pejorative view of the indigenous tribes. However, he was a key figure at critical moments for both the colonial government in the Philippines and National Geographic magazine. By exploring these types of controversial and flawed figures we can get a better sense of how and why events occurred as they did and how better decisions can be made in the future.

- Lindsey Lauren Visser, Public Programming Assistant

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Speaker Nite is part of the TR Site’s regular Tuesday evening programming, which is made possible with generous support from M&T Bank, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

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