NEGOTIATING PRINCELY STATUS THROUGH THE PHOTOGRAPHIC GIFT: Pakualam VII's family album for Crown Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, 1937

In 1937 Prince Pakualam VII of Yogyakarta sent a family album to Crown Princess Juliana of the Netherlands as a wedding gift. It contained drawings and photographs of all the dynasty's leading members since the early 19 th century. This article examines the album, firstly, as a diplomatic gift given by a Javanese aristocrat living under Dutch colonial rule to a future queen of the Netherlands, and secondly, as a mode of self-representation that Javanese and Dutch monarchs embraced in different ways. While the portraits in the album contained general concessions to European mores, there was limited recognition of the Dutch royal occasion that it was meant to celebrate. Indeed, the gift represented an assertion of Pakualam VII's own dynasty. Thus, while Pakualam VII was technically a subject of the Dutch monarchy, his album gift to Juliana was ambiguous on the relations of sovereignty and subordination between the two families. © 2012 Copyright Editors, Indonesia and the Malay World