SEARCHING FOR MAURA

[Randy W]

SEARCHING FOR MAURA

Maura came to St. Louis from the Philippines to be put on display at the 1904 World’s Fair. Records suggest that, after her death, a Smithsonian anthropologist took part of her brain.

This is an INTERACTIVE story from the Washington Post, if you have access.

 

Quote

 

After the United States claimed victory in 1902, William Howard Taft, then governor of the Philippines, was eager to use the World’s Fair to show off the new territory and justify the occupation.

We don’t know what the Americans promised.

But they began recruiting Indigenous people from all over the Philippine Islands to travel to St. Louis.

Maura, now about 18, was one of them.