For students interested in the historic relationship between the Kingdom of Thailand and the United States of America, the Thammasat University Library recently acquired a significant historical study. Americans in Thailand is by Jim Algie, who has worked as a writer and editor in Bangkok for over 25 years. Americans in Thailand is an illustrated guide to America’s long-term presence in Thailand. Most Thais are familiar with Dan Beach Bradley (1804 –1873), the American Protestant missionary who brought the first Thai-script printing press to Siam, published the first Thai newspaper and single language Thai dictionary, performed the first surgical operation in Siam, and introduced Western medicine and technology. Then there was Jim Thompson, an American businessman who helped revive the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 1960s. Thompson’s house remains a noteworthy museum at Khwaeng Wang Mai, Khet Pathum Wan, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. Thompson’s biographer William Warren, an American who died last year, lectured at Chulalongkorn University for 30 years and wrote many books about Thai history and culture, several of which are in the TU Library collection. Less celebrated Americans who made contributions to the Kingdom include Genevieve Caulfield, a blind American teacher, who in 1938 founded the Bangkok School for the Blind, which she partly paid for herself. Her autobiography The Kingdom Within was published in 1960. Among comments about the Kingdom cited by Jim Algie is one from former President Ulysses S. Grant who visited in Siam in 1879. Speaking of his world tour, President Grant remarked:

I have seen nothing that has interested me more than Siam.

Landmark exhibition

Earlier this month, an important exhibition opened at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles at the Ratsadakhorn-bhibhathana Building, The Grand Palace, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok. Great and Good Friends reminds us of the lasting connection between the Kingdom of Thailand and United States of America. To commemorate two centuries of friendship, the exhibition includes official gifts exchanged between the two nations. It may be visited until June 30. Among items on view are presents from HM King Rama IV, HM King Rama V, HM King Rama VII, and HM King Rama IX. The objects are on loan from many leading U.S. cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and its presidential libraries, and the Library of Congress. Among Thai institutions participating in this ambitious event are King Prajadhipok’s Institute, National Museum Bangkok, Thai Department of Fine Arts, and Thai Film Archive.

Most of the items on display have never before been included in a museum exhibition. They include a letter dated August 1818 from Siam’s young foreign minister, Prayurawongse (Somdet Chao Phraya Borom Maha Prayurawongse  or Tish Bunnag (1788–1855) to the American president James Monroe, expressing the wish of His Majesty King Rama II to establish trade between the United States and the Kingdom of Siam. This statement corresponded with the desire by American merchants to trade with Siam. The letter refers to an audience given by HRH Prince Thap (Chetsadabodin; later HM King Rama III) to an American sea captain who travelled to Bangkok hoping to make money by trading for sugar. A Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Kingdom of Siam and the United States of America was written in 1833 and made into law. It is on loan from the National Archives and Records Administration, General Records of the United States Government. The noun amity means friendship, peaceful harmony, mutual understanding and peaceful relationship.

One of the most famous items on display is a letter from 1861, sent by HM King Rama V to U.S. President James Buchanan offering the United States a pair of elephants to increase and multiply in the continent of America. Along with his letter, the king included a pair of elephant tusks. When the letter reached Washington, D.C., James Buchanan had died, and Abraham Lincoln had been elected president of the United States. After some time, in 1862, President Lincoln refused the offer of elephants on the grounds that the climate in America would not favor the multiplication of the elephant. Some historians also believe that Lincoln was distracted by the ongoing U.S. Civil War and was mainly worried about weapons that could be immediately used in that conflict.

The letter from HM King Rama V is on loan from the U.S. National Archives, as was a copy of the letter from Lincoln in reply to HM King Rama V. Thai students of English language may admire the elegant handwriting used to write these official letters. Very few native speakers of English in American today have such fine skills in penmanship.

First visit of a reigning Thai monarch to the U.S.A.

Great and Good Friends also highlights the visit by HM Rama VII and Queen Rambhai Barni to America in 1931, where the King declared:

In Siam there exists high admiration for the achievements of this great country, and a marked feeling of friendship towards both the American people and its government. This is largely due to the fact that Americans have made valuable contribution to the modern development of my Kingdom, and that the government of the United States has shown sympathetic understanding, both of the aspiration and the achievements of my Kingdom.

Seven years earlier, when they were still Prince and Princess, the King and Queen had visited New York, but this was the first time they had returned to the U.S.A. as monarchs. Among the sights they saw on the 1931 was the Empire State Building, the 102-story skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, designed by the architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, which had been completed the same year. Among the famous Americans they met on this trip included George Herman (Babe) Ruth, a much-admired American baseball player whose fans referred to him as the Great Bambino and the Sultan of Swat. The reason for these nicknames is that the Italian word for baby or babe is bambino, and the noun sultan is an Arabic term meaning a ruler. Swat District is a valley and an administrative district in Pakistan. The idea that Babe Ruth was a leader among players had nothing to do with Pakistan, but rather to the meaning of the word swat when used as a verb. The word swat as a verb means to hit or crush something with a sharp slap, and Ruth was appreciated for hitting baseballs long distances. HM Rama VII also met the American pilot Amelia Earhart, whose disappearance during a flight in 1937 is still being discussed in the English language media.

The American institutions made special efforts to restore these precious items to make sure that they were in good condition for their trip to the Kingdom where they may be appreciated by all.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)