Americans in Colonial Sarawak: A Little History.


 

THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL
VOL LXVIII NO.89 DECEMBER 2011

 
 
Title : 
Americans in Colonial Sarawak: A Little History.

Author : 
A. Baer

Abstract:
When Sarawak was under foreign control, not all palefaced strangers were British. Among the lesser invaders were a few Americans.These men came to Borneo for specific purposes. During the 1850s the purpose for Joseph Balestier was to extend American political and economic influence in Southeast Asia. The purpose for both William Hornaday and William Abbott was exploitation and exportation of natural history, or, as they saw it, the purpose was to serve science in the United States. The late nineteenth-century purpose for William Furness was to explore Borneo cultures, but after 1900 he became, instead, a promoter for rich Americans who backed a failed scheme to make high-grade rubber from forestjelutong in Sarawak. After World War I, Victor Heiser visited Sarawak to encourage health improvement in the country. Toward the end of another world war, Americans were involved in the Allied offensives against the Japanese on Borneo. American Christian missionaries also arrived over the years with their own agenda, and they provided some practical benefits. Whatever the intention of sundry Americans in Sarawak, they shared two ideas with their European cousins: that they had a right to travel where they chose and that the United States had a right to play a major role in the world.

DOI:
XXXX


How to cite:
A. Baer. (2011). Americans in Colonial Sarawak: A Little History. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LXVIII (89): 183-200

References
  1. Ahmat Sharom. 1966. Joseph B. Balestier: the first American Consul in Singapore (1833-1852). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Malaysian Branch 39 (2): 108-122.
  2. Balestier, J. 1848. View of the state of agriculture in the British possessions in the Straits of Malacca. Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 2 (3): 139-150.
  3. Baring-Gould, S. and Bampfylde, C.A. 1989. A History of Sarawak under its Two White Rajah 1839-1908. Oxford University Press, Singapore (originally published in 1909 by H. Sotheran, London).
  4. Cartwright, F.T. 1938. Tuan Hoover of Borneo. Abingdon, New York.
  5. Fifield, R.H. 1973. Americans in Southeast Asia. Crowell, New York.
  6. Furness, W.H. 1896. Glimpses of Borneo. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 35: 309-320.
  7. Furness, W.H. 1899. Folk-lore in Borneo. Privately printed, Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
  8. Furness, W.H. 1902. The Home-life of Borneo Head Hunters. Lippincott, Philadelphia.
  9. Furness, W.H. 1902. The Island of Stone Money: Uap of the Carolines. Lippincott, Philadelphia.
  10. Furness, W.H. 1916. Observations on the mentality of chimpanzees and orangutans. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 55: 281-290.
  11. Haddon, A.C. 1903. The Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters. Man 3: 15-16.
  12. Heiser, V. 1936. An American Doctor’s Odyssey. Norton, New York.
  13. Hiller, H.M. 1896. A brief report of a journey up the Rejang River in Borneo. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 35: 321-328.
  14. Hillix, W. and Rumbaugh, D. 2004. Animal Bodies, Human Minds. Kluwer, New York.
  15. Hinsley, C.M. 1981. Savages and Scientists: The Smithsonian Institution and the Development of American Anthropology, 1846-1910. SI Press, Washington, DC.
  16. Hornaday, W.T. 1929. Two Years in the Jungle; The Experience of a Hunter and Naturalist in India, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, and Borneo. Scribners, New York (originally published in 1885).
  17. Hose, C. 1994. Fifty Years of Romance and Research in Borneo. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.
  18. Irwin, G. 1955. Nineteenth-century Borneo: A Study in Diplomatic Rivalry. Martenies Nijhoff, ‘s-Gravenhage.
  19. Mouson, S.E. 1959. The Liberation of the Philippines. Little, Brown, Boston.
  20. Ooi Keat Gin. 1997. Of Free Trade and Native Interests; the Brookes and the Economic Development of Sarawak, 1841-1941. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.
  21. Porritt, V. 2009. Dato Sri T’en Kuen Foh. Borneo Research Bulletin 40: 29- 37.
  22. Reiger,J. 2001. American Sportsmen and the Origin of Conservation. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR.
  23. Runciman, S. 1960. The White Rajahs. Cambridge University Press, London.
  24. Savage, V. 1984. Western Impressions of Nature and Landscape in Southeast Asia. Singapore University Press, Singapore.
  25. Shelford, R.W.C. 1916. A Naturalist in Borneo. E.B. Poulton, ed. Unwin, London.
  26. Sutlive, V. 1985. The anthropologist and the missionary; irreconcilable enemies or colleagues in disguise. In: Missionaries, Anthropologists, and Cultural Change. D. Whiteman, ed. Studies in Third World Societies, Williamsburg, VA. Pp. 55-90.
  27. Tarling, N. 1982. The Burthen, the Risk, and the Glory. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.Tarling, N. 1982. The Burthen, the Risk, and the Glory. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.
  28. Taylor, P.M. and Hamilton, R.W. 1993. The Borneo collections of W L. Abbott (1860-1936) at the Smithsonian. In: Change and Development in Borneo. V. Sutlive, ed. Borneo Research Council, Department of Anthropology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA. Pp. 311-339.
  29. Timm, R. and Birney, E. 1980. Mammals collected on the Menage scientific expedition to the Philippine Islands and Borneo, 1890-1893. Journal of Mammalogy 61 (3): 566-571.
  30. Wallace, A.R. 1962. The Malay Archipelago. Dover, New York (originally published in 1869).
  31. Ward, E. 1959. Oil is Where They Find It. Harrap,London.

 

 

 
 

Copyright © 2021 Sarawak Museum Department
Last Updated On 27 Mar 2025

Operating Hours (Main Office)

Monday - Thursday
8.00am to 1.00pm & 2.00pm to 5.00pm

Friday
8.00am to 11.45pm & 2.00pm to 5.00pm

Saturday, Sunday, Public Holiday
Counter Closed
image Polls
image Announcement