Igorot Feast Dance Postcard
1904 St. Louis World’s Fair Postcard Souvenir Philippine Exhibit
The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, also called the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was the finest of all Fairs and the Philippine Exhibit was the largest and most popular exhibit at this Fair. This 47-acre exhibit included 1,100 Filipinos of various tribes and 100 buildings. At $2 million, it was the most expensive to exhibit at the Fair.
Tagalog, Visayan, Muslim, Igorot, Tinguiane, Pampangan, Kalinga, Mangyan, Negrito, and Bagobo recruits, some willing and others conned, traveled from the Philippines to the United States by ship and then by train. The recruits were well treated and well fed but the trip, especially through the cold weather, was difficult.
The Filipinos were shown performing their various daily tasks, as they would back home. Their World Fair homes were exact replicas of their homes in the Philippines to simulate their traditional environment.
The Igorot tribe was the greatest attraction at the Philippine Exhibit not only because of the scanty dressing of the males and their daily dancing to the tom-tom beats, but also because of their appetite for dog meat which is a normal part of their diet.
For additional information on the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and the Philippine Exhibit, please refer to DOGTOWN U.S.A.: AN IGOROT LEGACY IN THE MIDWEST. Virgilio R Pilapil. Journal of Filipino American National Historical Society, Vol. 2, 1992.
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