World's fairs and industrial expositions constituted a phenomenally successful popular culture movement during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to the newest technological innovations, each exposition showcased commercial and cultural exhibits, entertainment concessions, national and corporate displays of wealth, and indigenous peoples from the colonial empires of the host country. As scientists claiming specialized knowledge about indigenous peoples, especially American Indians, anthropologists used expositions to promote their quest for professional status and authority....

Ephraim George Squier and the Development of American Anthropology is an intellectual biography of Ephraim Squier (1821-88) and his contributions to the development of the nascent disciplines of archaeology and anthropology. During his career, which spanned the years 1845-77, Squier consistently articulated the need for a more holistic and integrated approach to the study of humankind. Although Squier is best known today for the classic book he coauthored with Edwin H. Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, Terry A. Barnhart shows that Squier's fieldwork and interpretive...