Nation Building Through Passports
American passports are used to build the nation as an ‘imagined community.’ Each page contains references to the nation’s myths and history. On the front inside cover page, there is a depiction of Francis Scott Key witnessing the Bombardment of Fort McHenry which inspired him to write the Star-Spangled Banner which would become the country’s national anthem.
Other famous events are depicted in the passport: On pages 8 and 9, the Declaration of Independence is shown alongside Liberty Hall where it was signed and the Liberty Bell which was rung to gather citizens around to hear the Declaration read aloud to the public for the first time. The passport is littered with quotes from several Presidents and other famous Americans. These quotes are meant to depict the values which the country strives to live up to.
The passport also shows the American landscape, especially of the ’frontier’ moving west. Depicted in these pictures are the deserts of the American Southwest (roughly Texas, New Mexico or Arizona) and one of America's mountain ranges. In one of the passports, the American Bison is depicted. The Bison is one of the animals most associated with the Natives. As the US border moved westwards, the Bison was almost driven to extinction by a combination of hunting for sport by Americans and deliberate attempts to kill them by the US government in order to hurt the Native Americans who relied on them.
Note: The German passports from the twentieth and twenty-first century show the changing symbolism of successive German states. Contemporary Germany passports do not depict chapters from national history and simply show the federal eagle on each page.
Family Collections Fate, Kappes, Teague, Swenson.
