September 16, 1947
CLOTHING ONE WORLD and KNOW YOUR UNITED NATIONS - A dual exhibition to open at the Brooklyn Museum with a private opening for Museum members and invited guests on Sept. 15 and to the public on Sept. 16.
WHAT INSPIRED THE EXHIBITION:
a statement by Charles Nagel, Jr., Director
The United Nations face a problem so enormous that it is difficult to come to grips with it. Most people, even those who want to help, are defeated by its size, and just go away, saying: What can I do?
We must create a climate in which the U.N. can flourish. This cannot be done only by official programs, but everyone must take hold on his own level. Appropriations are not enough. Donations are not enough. Everyone has to care personally about the success of U.N. to make it a success.
I was impressed with how true this is in talking to government representatives to the UNESCO Conference, which I attended. All these representatives are eminently capable and dedicated to its aims, but how to make a dent in the world situation with the tiny appropriation allotted to them fills them with deep despair.
We ought to be able to work out nation wide participation in the U.N., just as we do for the RED CROSS. The RED CROSS is an organization that copes with Disaster Relief. The U.N. is an organization for Disaster Prevention.
It is easier to establish sympathy through peoples than through their governments. We can do something to build up universal good will, regardless of diplomatic tiffs. This is why we took hold here at the Brooklyn Museum, feeling that the visual approach is as potent as any in putting the question squarely up to the public.
The Brooklyn Museum provides a focus of interest, as one of the community’s official cultural centres. We hope that by devoting all our energies and potentialities -- if only for a month or so -- to the idea that world peace is practical, this idea will radiate through every cultural centre, small or great, in every community in the land,
This dual exhibition: CLOTHING ONE WORLD and KNOW YOUR UNITED NATIONS - Your Path to Peace is only a beginning. We hope that some such festival will be an annual somewhere in Brooklyn - if not in the Brooklyn Museum.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 07-09/1947, 101. View Original
September 16, 1947
CLOTHING ONE WORLD and KNOW YOUR UNITED NATIONS - Your Path to Peace - are the titles of a dual exhibition to open at the Brooklyn Museum on September 15, with a reception to United Nations Delegates and a preview for Museum members and invited guests, at which there will be speakers of international importance. The exhibition will be open to the public on September 16, remaining on view through November 16.
This is not just another exhibition. It has innumerable angles of world interest on every level - from heart throb to high art: In other words, lots of good stories, not the least being to give everyone a picture of some of the things he can do, right on his own level, to keep peace.
The dual exhibition will be at the Brooklyn Museum for nine weeks, during which time there will be special events, featuring the art, music, dances and culture of many of the United Nations. KNOW YOUR U.N. is being designed end prepared by the United Nations Department of Visual Education for its first showing in the Brooklyn Museum. Later it will travel all over the country. The question of sending a reduced version of CLOTHING ONE WORLD “on the road” is under consideration also, by special request of groups and museums in several American cities. The Brooklyn Museum has designed a new and exciting panoramic presentation, that can be reduced or expanded as the setting requires.
CLOTHING ONE WORLD is a kaleidoscopic view of the successive steps taken by different peoples in their “escape from nakedness”. These lead you from bare feet to spike heels; from breech clouts to full-dress trousers. At no time is a complete costume assembled. You will have fun fitting the pieces together for yourself. Man all over the world had obviously to attack the clothes problem from the same point: Zero. And it is interesting to see how he has solved the need for clothing with the same basic forms, with differences only in decoration or emphasis. A skirt may be draped out of a sari or stitched into a dirndl; it remains a skirt.
CLOTHING ONE WORLD is not a fashion exhibition - unless you consider that what everyone wears is a fashion.
The Board of Education of the City of New York is sponsoring this dual exhibition. All civic, social and racial groups in Brooklyn will cooperate to make this a festival of international good will. We feel sure that all important publications will want to get behind it, too.
For further information call Publicity Department, (Miss Kathleen Cannell, in-charge-of special publicity,) Nevins 8-5000 or home address: 37 Madison Avenue, New York 10. Lexington 2-6880, Ext. 620.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 07-09/1947, 104-5. View Original
September 16, 1947
CLOTHING ONE WORLD, which with its companion show: Know Your United Nations composes the dual exhibition on view at the Brooklyn Museum from September 16 through November 16, 1947.
Museum Hours: Tuesday 1:30 P.M. to 9:30 P.M.
Other weekdays 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 PM.
Sundays & holidays 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.
CLOTHING ONE WORLD - AN ANATOMY OF FASHION
Panoramic Presentation, created by Michele Murphy, Curator of the Industrial Division of The Brooklyn Museum
Clothing from Collections of The Brooklyn Museum
Architectural Settings by Leo Russell
Clothing One World is a panorama of man’s “Escape from Nakedness” ... A kaleidoscope of the Ascent of Clothing, which inversely parallels the Decent of Man.
The anatomical areas to be covered have not changed since the Neanderthal Man and they are the same all over the world. We all have a head, torso, the same number of legs and arms... Throughout the evolution of clothing basic forms have remained the same, beneath the infinite variations and complications, which man has invented to disguise or enhance his anatomical limitations.
Clothing One World presented An Anatomy of Fashion in its basic divisions:
Shawls, mantles, sashes up to saris.
Capes, ponchos, chemises, blouses.
Trousers, aprons, skirts.
Jackets, coats.
Foot coverings.
Head coverings.
Michele Murphy has dissected the silhouette and created figures that often capture the essential gesture of the garment they display. Kaleidoscopic “personages”, light as ballet dancers, have been hand-tailored out of wire fencing or screening, sparkling, gauzy and tenuous in effect, though rigid in fact, painted in shades that complement and set off the rich colors of the clothing. Mounted on architectural “stages”, designed by Leo Russell, they seem to move in a glittering procession through the centuries and round the world.
Over the portal, fly two airy wire nudes, their anatomical boundaries indicated by gold belt, collar, bracelets, anklets, headband. Apart from these heralds, the whole figure appears only once: - to show a sari, which flows in a fountain of fabric from the lovely inclination of the head.
This anatomy of Fashion constitutes a fascinating costume quiz: You will have fun fitting the pieces together for yourself.
“The object suggested by its absence” - tenet of early Cubist sculptors, who may have got the idea from the Winged Victory - is here entirely justified. There are no realistic faces to distract from the centre of interest. Absence of a face heightens the mystery of a hooded black wool burnous from North Africa. A scroll of painted wire sketches in the head when that is needed to give the right proportion. A bouquet of spirals bursts from the slim waistline of a ruffled and embroidered apron. Wonderful spiral legs suggest leggings or breeches under swirling blood-red Greek kilts.
Caryatids of 1947 are flattened in columns of translucent mesh that round out a Chinese apron or form a pedestal for a jutting Russian basque of scintillating gold brocade.
Trousers take a swashbuckling stance, are modest, mincing or undulating, according to whether they’re wide piratical pantaloons from Bokhara, skimpy cloth of gold things from India, or modern American evening pajamas of pale rose satin.
For each of these evocative figures, Leo Russell has created its own vital space, an abstract decor that seems to open doors and windows on life. Black and white, architectural planes and columns set up no interference with the forms they frame, neither do they detract from the play of color, but rather focus attention on the sparkling details. Backgrounds are designed to lend unity and continuity to garments from widly separated regions and epochs.
Leo Russell is in perfect agreement with the Brooklyn Museum’s tradition that an exhibition should be lively and accessible - not set apart in “isolationist” shadow-boxes or glass cases. Therefore, the “participation of the spectator with the show", achieved in theatre and circus has been transposed into the necessarily more static formula of a museum presentation. But everything contributes to the illusion of vitality and movement. Trapeze displays for blouses, that sway in the air, the stylized runway, peopled with wire contortionists and acrobatically draped scarfs. The platforms have been purposely kept low, both to establish a “friendly" relation between visitors, wire figurants and sets and to give a greater impression of height and space to the surroundings.
Clothing One World is really Knowing One World. Clothes do not always make the man, but man did make the clothes. Clothes directly mirror man’s life. They reflect his character and philosophy, as well as his physique; indicate his geographical origin, climate and environment. And of all the arts, that of costuming is perhaps the most universally understood and enjoyed. Which is one of the reasons the Brooklyn Museum chose this Anatomy of Fashion as its contribution to the United Nations exhibition. This Anatomy reveals man’s similarities as more important and more numerous than his differences. We are brothers not only “under the skin”, but in our ways of covering it. Side by side stand two ceremonial coats. Both are in velvet, both lavishly embroidered with gold braid. The emerald green coat belonged to an Indian Prince; the royal purple to an Albanian nobleman - they might have come from the same wardrobe. Many such coincidences are noted throughout the show.
The development of clothing follows the lines of mankind’s great migrations. Displaced Mongol tribes brought trousers to the Philippine Islanders. Pants, as we wear them, came to us from the Arctic Circle. Our ancestors fought the War of Independence in French Culottes, but our independent American Indians never adopted trousers; the nearest they came to them was a combination of high buckskin leggings and a minute breech-clout. Highlanders naturally incline toward kilts - witness the Greeks, ancient and modern, and the Scottish clans.
As clothes evolve we find them growing more complicated and more ornamental, emphasizing one anatomical area to accent another: full trousers to give value to an athletic torso; the bustle to set off the bust; panniers to draw attention to a slim waist; wide-skirted men’s coats contrasting with molded knee-breeches and turned calf.
In this Anatomy of Fashion, such exaggerations are highlighted by the wire-mesh forms. For example, an 1880 French skirt of deep dark purple silk with massive asymmetrical drapery and flowing train enhancing the swan-curve of its blue wire “Figger” or a “Gone With the Wind” overskirt of blue taffeta brocade, poised airily on its own crinoline. Exaggerating in the other direction, we see bull-fighter’s breeches all gold galon, except the cerise silk entre-jambes, that fit like a second skin over the hips and thighs to define the highly stylized attitudes of a technique as rigidly prescribed as that of a classic ballet. Long gold ball fringe tassles, trailing nearly to the ankles are designed presumably to lend grace to the motions, difficulty to their execution and the bewilderment to the bull.
Shoes wander perhaps as far from natural forms as any article of apparel - except hats. Foot coverings lead you from supple wrapped sandals that embrace the foot, through curly toes Persian slippers and Turkish baboosh, to Louis XV spike heels, studded with jewels.
Among high clogs worn variously to keep the feet dry, to make them look small and to lengthen the leg line, enchanting Syrian clogs, plated with repousse silver, announce their entrance with a tiny clash of festooned cymbals. Venetian chopins - really upholstered mules set on stilt-pedestals look practical for stationary hostess wear only. A modern American version of the Chinese clog shows a black satin footglove mounted on a veritable scaffolding of lacquered wood.
Clothing One World is a fashion exhibition only in the broad sense that what everyone wears makes a fashion. But the fashion industries will nevertheless find a wealth of inspiration in this show. America at the Turn of the Century contributes an impressive raven velvet tunic embroidered with matching bugles, which, with its bodice-fitting, amplified hips, big sleeves and high collar, seems to say: “I told you so” to the 1947-48 silhouette. A pleated and embroidered pink chiffon blouse could take part in the Gibson Girl revival of today. A French capuchin in deep rose-geranium ottoman - a combination of hood, capelet and stole could be adapted into a smart accessory either in fur or fabric. An English hunting skirt in pheasant-brown suede is just the current length. With its matching belt, unpressed back pleats and patch packets placed toward the back, it would make Baleniago swoon. A Spanish wrap-around skirt in vivid red felt, with colorful scalloped and applique-embroidered border would make an after ski skirt - out of this world. There are ideas for novel trimmings in a Philippine bolero, delicately embroidered in tiny white shells, and in a grand Russian skirt, embroidered all over in jewel toned silks picked up with gold. Unusual pleatings appear in crimped aprons from the Balkans and Checkoslovikia. Combinations of rich fabrics, such as satin, chevron-braoaded ottoman and silk fringe, hint at new textile ensembles to wear after dark.
“Psychological Traffic Control” has been arranged by Michele Murphy. You don’t need an Ariadne with her scarlet thread to lead you though a maze of exhibits. The wire personages figuratively take you by the hand and guide you through the ramifications of time and space, clearly landmarked, to the climax and exit of Clothing One World.
For further information call Publicity Department, Miss Kathleen Cannell, Nevins 8-5000, or (Home) Lexington 2-6880 Ext. 620.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 07-09/1947, 122-4. View Original
September 16, 1947
You will doubtless be interested in covering one or several angles of our United Nations Exhibition in your radio newscasts. When you have read the following information, if you will let us know which of your departments should get press releases, and when, we would be glad to send them direct.
A dual exhibition: Clothing One World and Know Your United Nations will open at BROOKLYN MUSEUM on September 15 with an evening reception for the United Nations Delegates, Museum Members and invited guests at which speakers will be - Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, His Excellency Herschel V. Johnson, Deputy U. S. Representative of the Security Council of U.N., and the Honorable Benjamin Cohen, Assistant-Secretary-General in charge of Public Information, U.N. Speaking on the eve of the United Nations Assembly, it is quite possible that they may have something sensational to announce. The exhibition will be open to the public for nine weeks, beginning September 16.
Know Your United Nations, designed by the Visual Education Section of U.N., will tell simply and graphically the story of this great organization for “Disaster Prevention” - why it is vital, what it is doing and what everyone can do right where he is to keep peace. It will bring UN, ENESCO, etc., out from behind those impersonal initials and reveal them as living, active human personalities. When it leaves Brooklyn on November 16, Know Your United Nations will travel all over the United States and versions it will be shown in nine foreign countries.
Clothing One World, designed by the Museum staff, will show how fig leaves evolved into clothes all over the world in man’s “Escape from Nakedness.” It will launch a kaleidoscopic and panoramic presentation, featuring a novel psychological “traffic control”, that eliminates wandering through a maze of exhibits.
While the exhibition is at the BROOKLYN MUSEUM, various language groups in Brooklyn will play hosts to United Nations nationals at special events including folk dancing, music and so on, of the countries in question. There will be special showings of films for adults and children. All social, civic and racial groups in Brooklyn are cooperating to make this a real festival of international good will. Some interesting features are being prepared by Youth Groups. The Board of Education of the City of New York is sponsoring both branches of the exhibition and is arranging to have school children visit them during school hours as part of their regular study.
The following personalities will be available as guest speakers on radio programs:
Mrs. Tracy S. Voorhees, Trustee of Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and Member of the Governing Board of Brooklyn Museum
Mr. Charles Nagel, Jr., Director of Brooklyn Museum and animator of the exhibition
Mrs. Michele Murphy, Curator of the Industrial Division of Bklyn Mus.
Mr. George N. Kates, Curator of Oriental Arts of Bklyn Mus.
Mr. John Gordon, Supervisor of Publications and Publicity of Bklyn Mus.
We can also arrange to have some speakers from the United Nations, who have contributed to designing and organizing Know Your United Nations.
For further information and fullest cooperation in furnishing all the material you need, please call: Kathleen Cannell, in charge of special publicity - Nevins 8 - 5000.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 07-09/1947, 106. View Original
September 16, 1947
KNOW YOUR UNITED NATIONS Designed by the Visual Information Section of the United States
CLOTHING ONE WORLD Created by Michele Murphy, Curator of the Industrial Division The Brooklyn Museum; With clothing from Collections of the Brooklyn Museum and Architectural Settings by Leo Russell
Dual exhibition September 16 - November 16, 1947
Sponsored by THE BOARD OF EDUCATION, The City of N.Y.
Museum Hours: Tuesdays 1:30 P.M. to 9:30 P.M.
Other weekdays 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
Sundays & holidays 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.
OPENING NIGHT AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM
A Festival of International Good will, which will have a nine weeks “run” at the Brooklyn Museum, opened with a private preview of a double-header exhibition: Know United Nations and Clothing One World, on the evening of September 15, at 8:30.
United Nations Delegates, Museum Members and nearly 2,000 invited guests filled the immense Sculpture Court or looked down from the great balconies to hear the distinguished speakers: Mr. Benjamin Cohen, Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information; Mrs. Franklin D, Roosevelt, Member of the United States Delegation to The General Assembly of the United Nations, Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights; and the Honorable Herschel V. Johnson, Ambassador, Alternate Chief of the United States Mission to the United Nations, Alternate Representative on the Security Council - named in the order of their appearance. Incidental music by a string quartet furnished an agreeable background to the speeches, which gained in significance from the fact that they were the last words from world authorities, on the eve of the opening of the second sessions of the United Nations General Assembly. From nine o’clock on, the program was broadcast over the City Station WNYC.
Following the addresses, Mr. Charles Nagel, Jr., Director of the Brooklyn Museum, led the way to the main entrance hall where the Companion Shows which make up the United Nations Exhibition are on view.
It is easier to establish sympathy through peoples than through their governments. And art speaks an international language that can be clearly heard above the clamor of political arguments. A museum is, so to speak, a Free State of the Intelligence, in which prejudices may be laid aside and nationals from every United Nation may meet without constraint and get to know each other better. That is what inspired Charles Nagel, Jr., to offer the hospitality of The Brooklyn Museum to an exhibition, which points up the YOU in United Nations and proves that the idea of world peace is practical today.
Among the guests on the Opening Night, who rallied to the support of this idea, were Heads of The Board of Education of The City of New York, who are sponsoring the exhibitions, more than three hundred Honorary Sponsors, including representatives of leading social, civic and language groups from both Brooklyn and Greater New York, and many One-World minded individuals. A Youth Group, headed by Herbert D. Saltzstein, a Senior at Erasmus High School and President of the National Youth Group for United Nations, were particularly enthusiastic.
“Know Your United Nations” tells simply and graphically the story of this great organization for “Disaster Prevention” why it is vital, what it is doing and what everyone can do, right on his level to keep peace. It introduces the various sections of the U.N. as people, not as alphabetical formulas. It shows at a glance the tragic efforts of the “too little and too late” attitudes of peoples in every country. It is not too late for peace and You can do something about it. The task is almost unimaginably great. But because you can’t do everything, don’t be satisfied with doing nothing.
The Nucleus of Know Your United Nations is a model Peace Building over whose door fly the 55 flags of the Nations represented, constructed in the main hall of the Brooklyn Museum. The story is unfolded by means of color charts, informative texts, designs and photo-montages of such beauty and clarity that anyone can grasp their content immediately. The walls of the exhibition hall are decorated by 55 large hanging panels - one devoted to each nation, showing composite views of the nation’s past, present and future in relation to the U.N.
A group of United Nations Prize Posters, exhibited for the first time, lend a colorful note. There is a booth with an automatic film strip.
A feature of the exhibition which attracted many visitors on Opening Night was the booth installed by the United States Brooklyn Post Office where stamps are sold and where full information regarding all foreign mailing is available to those preparing their Christmas parcels to send abroad. (This booth is open during Museum hours.)
Clothing One World is really Knowing One World, for clothes directly mirror man’s life. They reflect his character and his philosophy, as well as his physique; indicate his geographical origin, climate and environment. And of all the mute “dialects” spoken by the universal language of art, costuming is probably the most “colloquial”; everyone can understand and enjoy it. We are all the same underneath. This is what motivated the choice of Clothing One World - an anatomy of fashion - as The Brooklyn Museum’s contribution to the United Nation Exhibition.
Clothing One World, designed by the Museum staff, with clothing the Museum’s vast collections and settings by Leo Russell, is a World Panorama of Man’s “Escape from Nakedness”. In a kaleidoscopic presentation of the evolution of clothing, it establishes the anatomical boundaries of fashion. It show where clothes came from and why we wear them. It underlines and amplifies the story of man’s development, as told in another way by Know Your United Nations.
The Board of Education of the City of New York is not only sponsoring the dual exhibition: it has arranged to have school children visit it in groups during school hours as part of their regular study.
Four special events a week, arranged by Miss Hanna Rose, Curator of the Educational Division (of which program is attached) will be held at The Brooklyn museum, during the nine weeks of the show. Concerts featuring famous visiting museums from many of the countries that make up the United Nations, who will play the classical and modern music of their country; evenings of folk dancing and singing; presentations of films for adults and children, showing life of far-flung lands, will tell us all about the neighbors of our rapidly shrinking world.
As one of the community’s official cultural centers, the Brooklyn Museum provides a focus of interest for this important community effort in behalf of world peace. The Museum extends the hospitality of its Members Room to the Community Sponsorship Groups for the duration of the exhibition. Already, they have held meeting there to prepare programs of their own, within the general framework of the exhibition. They are also invited to give informal receptions for friends who may wish to visit the show in groups.
Mr. Nagel has been working on the idea of such a good will festival for almost two years. He was spurred on by attending the UNESCO Conference in Pennsylvania, where he found the delegates appalled by the task of making a dent in the world situation with the tiny appropriation allotted to them. He hopes that by devoting all the Museum’s potentialities - if only for a month or so - to the idea that peace is possible, this idea will radiate through every cultural centre, small or great, in every American community. The Brooklyn Opening is only a beginning. “Know Your United Nations” will later tour the country and versions of it will be shown in nine foreign countries.
Knowing One World is the first step to Building One World. Many took this step on Opening Night at The Brooklyn Museum. Many more will follow in their footsteps as the show goes on.
For further information call Publicity Department, Miss Kathleen Cannell, Nevins 8-5000, or (home) Lexington 2-6880 Ext. 620
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 07-09/1947, 118-20. View Original
September 16, 1947
KNOW YOUR UNITED, which with its companion show: Clothing One World composes the dual exhibition on view at The Brooklyn Museum from September 16 through November 16, 1947. (Both shows are panoramic and kaleidoscopic in presentation. They tell the story of man’s development in different ways.)
Museum Hours: Tuesdays 1:30 A.M. to 9:30 P.M.
Other weekdays 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
Sundays & Holidays 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.
KNOW YOUR UNITED NATIONS, Designed by the Visual Information Section of THE UNITED NATIONS
“It is not too late for peace...And this is what YOU can do to help.”
Know Your United Nations is a Panorama of Peace... A kaleidoscope of the obstacles cleared and the advances achieved by man in his advance toward freedom.
In the great entrance hall of The Brooklyn Museum, the Visual Information Section has erected a model Peace Centre, over whose door fly the fifty-five flags of the United Nations. “One time seeing is better than one thousand times hearing” - says the old Chinese Proverb. So within, unfolds before your eyes the whole story of United Nations. It tells why the U.N. is necessary to everyone of us. It tells what the U.N. is doing and why... Just how U.N. is doing it and how YOU can help.
Graphic screens and standing panels, photo-montages, color charts and world maps are so arranged that anyone can grasp their message instantly. Informative and decorative texts explain the illustrations and give you specific suggestions for the innumerable things YOU can do, right where YOU live, to keep peace and enlarge the scope of freedom.
All round the exhibition hall, hang great panels, one for each of the fifty-five United Nations taking part in this festival of international good will. These give kaleidoscopic views of the nation’s past, present and future in relation to the United Nations. They show how every time civil liberties were infringed in any country it brought us all one step nearer to World War II. They chart the great landmarks in man’s advance toward freedom: Magna Charta, our own American Declaration of Independence, the Atlantic Charter - and all the others, before and in between. They remind us that Democracy isn’t something that can be pulled out of a hat. It must be patiently built up, as well as fought for.
A collection of United Nations Prize Posters and some runners up which have not yet been exhibited, lends a colorful note to the background. A booth with an automatic film-strip, which tells us more about our neighbors in this rapidly shrinking world, will amuse many. A special children’s exhibition will be of interest to the school children of Greater New York, who are to visit the exhibition during school hours as part of their regular study by arrangement of The New York City Board of Education, which is sponsoring the dual exhibition at The Brooklyn Museum.
The United States Post Office has installed its own booth in the exhibition hall. A bureau of information giving full details regarding all foreign mailing will help YOU to Know Your United Nations postal links. This will be particularly helpful to those already sending Christmas packages abroad. Stamps will be sold, enabling you to mail picture postcards from The Brooklyn Museum. This booth will be open during Museum hours.
Know Your United Nations is a portmanteau exhibition. It has been specially designed to travel light; for after its nine weeks “run” at The Brooklyn Museum, it will “stump the country” in favor of the U.N. Versions of it will also be shown in nine other countries. The Peace Centre is pre-fabricated and the panorama can be reduced or expanded to fit into any setting. Adjustable standing panels can be combined into screens or used separately in a variety of ways without confusion. They all fit into specially designed cases, reducing volume, weight and consequent expense to a minimum.
Because you hear so much through press and radio about what the United Nations have not yet been able to do, it is heartening to see with YOUR own eyes some of the stupendous things in every domain they have already accomplished. U.N., through its various branches, has stretched long compassionate arms around the world to bind up the wounds of many wartorn peoples. The Economic and Social Council is engaged in “the most glorious war of all times - a war against misery - a war which saves lives instead of costing lives.” In twenty months of existence this Council has completed the most far-reaching organization ever set up to deal with problems which range from child welfare to world trade and commerce. It has set up Economic Commissions for Europe, for Asia and for the Far East, which are already helping to rebuild war-devastated countries. The World Health Organization, though not officially ratified, is controlling epidemics and rehabilitating people from the jungles to the Arctic Circle. The International Refugee Organization, through its interim body is carrying on the work of UNRRA to assist 1,000,000 refugees and Displaced Persons. The International Children’s Emergency Fund has begun supplying food to the 80,000,000 starving children of the world and assistance of all kinds to their mothers.
These are just a few accomplished facts to the credit of the United Nations.
Clothing One World is really knowing one world, too. Clothes do not always make the man, but man did make the clothes. Clothes directly mirror man’s life. They reflect his character, and philosophy, as well as his physique; indicate his geographical origin, climate and environment. That is why The Brooklyn Museum chose this theme as its contribution to the United Nations exhibition.
Know Your United Nations is an antidote to despair and an incentive to keep going. It assures YOU that though One World can’t be built in a day, the United Nations Organization marks the longest forward step civilization has taken toward the goal of World Peace.
For further information, call Publicity Department, Miss Kathleen Cannell, Nevins 8-5000, or (home) Lexington 2-6880, Ext. 620.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 07-09/1947, 125-7. View Original
September 16, 1947
To show the “man in the street” how the United Nations affects his personal life, the Department of Public Information of the United Nations will launch a world wide program of visual information in exhibition form with the opening tomorrow evening (Monday, September 15) with an invitation preview at the Brooklyn Museum of the first showing of “Know Your United Nations”, it was announced yesterday by Jan Juta, noted muralist of South Africa, who is chief of the Visual Information Section.
United Nations delegates, museum members, the Community Sponsoring Committee of more than 300 members and other invited guests numbering more than 2000 will attend the special opening. Speakers tomorrow night will be Benjamin Cohen, Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information of the United Nations, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, a member of the United States Delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations and Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, and Ambassador Herschel V. Johnson, Alternate Chief of the United States Mission to the United Nations and Alternate Representative on the Security Council.
“Know Your United Nations” will open to the public Tuesday, September 16 to continue on view for nine weeks.
Organized a year ago, the Visual Information Section of the Department of Public Information has created posters, charts, films and other visual aids for distribution all over the world. As a means of bringing practical information in a new form to the “eyes” of the citizens of the world, it has now started in the exhibition field with a first showing in a museum of a complete explanation of the structure and functions of the United Nations, Mr. Juta explained in his announcement of the new program.
Photo montages, color charts, maps and decorative texts will tell the story of the United Nations activities. Among the divisions explained in detail are: Economic and Social Council which deals with problems ranging from child welfare to world trade and commerce; the Trusteeship Council which is set up to further international peace by security in trust, and the International Children’s Emergency Fund which has begun the gigantic task of supplying food to the 80,000,000 starving children of the world.
From the Brooklyn Museum where it will remain for nine weeks to give everyone in the metropolitan area and surrounding communities an opportunity to learn his part in furthering the United Nations, “Know Your United Nations” will take to the road travelling through the United States and other countries.
Four editions of this first travelling show are being prepared, one in French, one in Spanish, and a second one in English to go to the English speaking countries. The Brooklyn Museum edition will be displayed in the principal cities of the United States.
In announcing the new world wide program, Mr. Juta said that the Visual Information Section is focusing special efforts on the exhibition field through the conviction that this type of visual medium is most needed for so vast a subject. Accounts of United Nations activities are apt to be dry. The function of the Visual Information Section is to bring to life in a graphic, understandable form the dramatic decisions and plans which come from the meetings of the United Nations organs and to show citizens in all countries how the United Nations already is a living part of their day to day existence.
Through the Visual Information Section, Mr. Juta added, other materials for the public’s use already are available. Posters and charts may be obtained by individuals and groups on request and film strips in 16mm reels are available on loan.
Mr. Juta expressed the hope that as the new exhibition program gains momentum more individuals and communities will become acquainted with the work of the Section, and will recognize that it is designed to keep them in close touch with their role in the world effort for peace.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 10-12/1947, 139-140. View Original
