Collection Description

The era covered by The Wolfsonian’s collection represents the high-water mark of colonialism, a time when European countries large and small claimed dominion over territory from Asia to the Caribbean, while the United States and Japan strove to build overseas empires of their own. Artifacts in the collection reveal how colonizers were themselves influenced by the cultures of the colonized and include works from the colonial exhibitions held during the early twentieth century; posters for airlines and steamship companies serving colonial territories; and objects, such as Batik-inspired Dutch book bindings.