Philippine History

In 1914, Dean Conant Worcester (AB 1889) donated his extensive assemblage material related to Philippine history to the University of Michigan, where he had served as assistant professor of zoology and curator of the Zoological Museum. The collection now consists of published works, manuscript items, and photographs documenting many aspects of Philippine history, with particular emphasis on the period between 1899 and 1913, when Worcester was a member of the United States Philippine Commission and served as secretary of the interior for the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands. Typical of many in the collection, the photographs on display here tended to take an anthropological gaze and favored an image of Filipinos as primitive and exotic.

The Library’s holdings in Philippine history are complemented by equally impressive collections held by the Bentley Historical Library, the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

This photograph and many others can be found in the Philippine Photographs Digital Archive.