Gezicht op het Palais du Trocadéro op de Wereldtentoonstelling van 1878 1878

This is an anonymous photograph of the Palais du Trocadéro at the 1878 World’s Fair in Paris. These World’s Fairs were monumental displays of industrial progress, and potent symbols of global power dynamics. The Trocadéro Palace, with its vaguely Moorish architectural elements, was built to showcase France’s colonial reach, particularly into North Africa. The image captures a moment of cultural self-aggrandizement, projecting an image of European dominance and a specific vision of modernity. Who was invited, and who was excluded from this vision? What were the experiences of those who came to Paris as part of colonial exhibitions, often displayed as living artifacts? This photograph, while seemingly a benign architectural record, is pregnant with the politics of representation, identity, and historical narrative. It encourages us to consider whose stories are told, and from what perspective, in the grand narratives of progress.