HAUNTING IMAGES FROM HUNGARY

In celebration of the Halloween holiday, I thought I'd share with you the following treats from the Wolfsonian-FIU library's ephemera collection: These two vintage postcards were published in Gyoma, Hungary by Isador Kner, ca. 1918. XB1992.156.2 ; XB1992.156.3

VISIT TO WOLFSONIAN LIBRARY BY ITALIAN CURATOR, SILVIA BARISIONE

This October, the Wolfsonian-FIU museum and research center hosted a visit to the institution by Silvia Barisione, an expert on twentieth-century Italian decorative arts and one of three curators at the Wolfsoniana, our sister institution in Genoa, Italy. Silvia has been working with that collection since 1991, and with her colleagues Matteo Fochessati and Gianni Franzione, has organized numerous exhibitions both in Italy and abroad, and published a number of excellent and well-received catalogs for the same. Thanks to a NEA "Access to Artistic Excellence" grant, Silvia was able to spend nearly the entire month with us working on projects centered on our extensice Italian holdings. She also came bearing gifts--something we always appreciate here--donating to the library a vintage Italian postcard published at the end of the First World War by her great grandfather.

Silvia conducted a survey of our rare Italian books and ephemera and helped us identify some particularly rare and significant items in our collection. One item in particular that caught her eye was this book published by Davide Campari and C. in 1932 with brilliancolor illustration by futurist artist Bruno Munari (1907-1998).

In the course of her research visit, Silvia also worked with Wolfsonian curator Marianne Lamonaca to explore the possibilities of organizing a joint exhibition drawn from our related--if geographically separated--collections. Their collaboration has thus far produced the germs of an exhibition with the tentative working title, Exporting Italy. This exhibition will look at how Italy marketed its products abroad, examining the trends, debates, and directions of Italian art and design between 1902 and 1960.

While Silvia appeared content slaving away in our windowless research library--the few windows on this floor are kept constantly shuttered to prevent UV light damage to our rare books--we thought it necessary to occasionally drag her out into the sunshine on weekends to ensure that she did not return to Genoa paler in complexion than when she arrived! Towards that end, the staff here took turns dragging her off to the beach and to some of the quirkier tourist attractions here in sunny Florida. Here she is with yours truly during a Sunday afternoon excursion to Coral Castle and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

CCC GAME ON LOAN FOR AN EXHIBIT AT FIU’S GREEN LIBRARY IN NOVEMBER

Two Florida International University students currently enrolled in my America & Movies: the Great Depression and New Deal Era in Film and History class had the privilege of visiting the Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. private collection in downtown Miami earlier this month. While there, they selected a number of items to be included in a display of materials primarily culled from our own rare books and special collections library.

Both students have been looking at New Deal programs aimed at the young, and especially at materials relating to the Roosevelt administration’s Civilian Conservation Corps (or CCC). One item that caught their attention was The Forest Ranger Game, a 1930s game board designed by the Indoor Games Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota to capitalize on the popularity of Roosevelt’s CCC program. The students have also selected another item from the Wolfsonian library collection for inclusion in their display: All-Story Love Stories, a popular weekly featuring a romantic tale by Edna Gorman entitled, “C.C.C. Sweetheart.”

The CCC provided employment for millions of undernourished urban youths whose parents had been thrown out of work by the Great Depression; the program required enlistees to send the majority of their paychecks back home to help support their families. It was assumed that performing manual labor in the “great outdoors” would help restore American boys both in body and soul. Clothed in military-style uniforms and stationed in barracks located in rural areas and state and national parks, these youths were set to work on various conservation and natural resource development projects. Between 1933 and 1942, three million young men—(most between the ages of 18 and 25)—were enrolled in the CCC for terms of six months or longer. There they gained an appreciation for nature that later helped spawn the post-war conservation movement in the United States.

The game board, periodical, and many other New Deal artifacts selected by the student “curators” will on display at Florida International University’s Green Library in mid-November and December, 2009.