Visions of a Modern Nation: Haiti at the World's Fairs
Haitian governments began sending exhibits abroad under Faustin Soulouque, whose coffee, wax and mahogany went to the New York Exhibition of 1853 with a bust of the emperor set on top. Hadassah St. Hubert follows the practice for a century, through Lysius Salomon's agricultural fair of 1881, the pavilion at Chicago in 1893, Sténio Vincent's delegations to Paris in 1931 and 1937, the Bicentennial exposition built on the Port-au-Prince waterfront in 1949, and the Duvalier-era displays at New York and Montreal. Drawing on Haitian archives, French and American diplomatic records, the files of the Bureau International des Expositions and the papers of Pan American Airways, she shows officials shifting their pitch from produce to art, dance and history as tourism became the goal, while Vodou was kept out of view. Each pavilion argued for sovereignty in a venue built to display empire, and each deepened the country's dependence.
St. Hubert, H. (2018). Visions of a Modern Nation: Haiti at the World's Fairs [Thesis, University of Miami].