Classifying the Cartozians: rethinking the politics of visibility alongside Ottoman subjecthood and American citizenship

Abstract

Tatos Cartozian was naturalized in Portland, Oregon in May 1923, a decision that was immediately challenged on racial grounds. This article follows the Cartozian family - from their sitting for an Ottoman expatriation portrait to exit the Ottoman empire in 1906 to their deft use of advertising and portrait photography in the United States in order to rethink the politics of visibility and legal belonging. As several Asian groups were deemed ineligible for citizenship on account of not being ”white,” the very grounds on which ”whiteness” was to be determined - whether scientific expertise or assumed common knowledge - was continually shifting. In order to become US citizens, the Cartozians had to exit the category of “Asiatic” and join the ranks of the unmarked citizenry in the United States. Counterintuitively, they managed to do so while advertising their family business frequently and boldly as ”America’s Largest Oriental Rug Organization.”