“The Most Exhaustive Record of the World's Progress Ever Displayed”: Pope Pius XI's Culture of Conquest and Visitors’ Experiences at the Vatican Missionary Exposition

The second chapter contends that the arrangement and interpretation of Indigenous arts and material culture at the Vatican Missionary Exposition and in its official magazine, the Rivista Illustrata, served the goal of rendering Indigenous nations as static. It provides a detailed discussion of the exposition, showing how the vast number of materials from all over the globe overwhelmed missionary organizers and visitors. By creating a visual regime, the exposition presented Indigenous culture as what Pope Pius XI termed “silent eloquence.” He positioned Indigenous belongings as trophies of his domain to glorify the missionaries who “collected” them. The chapter further contextualizes the exhibition by imagining a visitor walking through the grandeur and cacophony of 1920s Rome. To conclude, it considers a series of contemporary expositions that contextualize the Vatican Missionary Exposition as a competitive spectacle and a form of “pope culture” in the age of world's fairs.