Hawaiʻi at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle

International Recognition of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1867–1889)

Dates & attendance

What Hawaiʻi showed

Hawaiian-language newspapers (Hae Hawai‘i, Ke Ku‘oko‘a) and English papers (The Polynesian, Hawaiian Gazette).
School texts (Kumumua, Ho‘ikehonua), an ‘ahu‘ula (feather cloak), feather lei, two small canoes, Ni‘ihau moena pāwehe, kapa tools (lā‘au kākau kapa), kapa pākū, lava & Pele’s hair, sulfur, and samples of sugar, rice, pia, kou, and koa a curated portrait of a literate, industrious Pacific nation. nupepa

Who represented the Kingdom

Hawaiian materials were placed as a sovereign exhibit; catalog and scholarly syntheses place Hawaiʻi’s display alongside the U.S. section in the main halls. (Individual delegate names for 1867 aren’t clearly listed in accessible online catalogs; the exhibit itself is well-documented.) HathiTrustWorld History Connected

Press & quotes (period lens)

Sydney Morning Herald report on the 1867 Exposition described “the Sandwich Islands” display with volcanic specimens and “night views of Kīlauea,” awarding a gold medal for photographic views; it also used colonial language about a “mixture of savage and civilised development,” revealing the racialized frame Hawaiians faced. Trove

Why it mattered

In a European arena that often othered Pacific peoples, Hawaiʻi self-presented as literate, scientific, and sovereign, publishing in Hawaiian and exhibiting state-backed pedagogy and industry. World History Connected