Caricaturist Conrado W. Massaguer and His Contemporaries

In little more than a week, a Wolfsonian Library installation titled Caricaturas will open to complement an exhibition in our fifth-floor gallery dedicated to Cuban art director, publisher, illustrator, and caricaturist, Conrado Walter Massaguer (1889–1965).

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gifts of Vicki Gold Levi

This new installation will include works by the world-renowned Cuban caricaturist but will also feature the satirical portraits made by other Latin American artists.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gift of Vicki Gold Levi

In tandem with the proliferation of popular magazines and periodicals in the early twentieth century, the caricature provided something better than an “objective” or photographic image of politicians and celebrities; by exaggerating easily recognizable facial features, mannerisms, or physiques of popular figures, the caricature combined portraiture with pictorial wit. Caricature rose to prominence both as a byproduct of mass media and celebrity culture, and as an important shaper of public opinion.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gift of Vicki Gold Levi

The modern caricature in Latin America developed in the aftermath of independence from Spanish rule, which tolerated no political dissent, humorous or otherwise. As the liberated colonies became nations, caricaturists emerged to celebrate their new cultural identities, but also to wage ideological war and to lampoon the incompetence and corruption of new political elites. Even during the era of the Cuban Republic, caricaturists frequently found themselves in trouble with disgruntled political leaders, angered by their satires. Conrado Massaguer despised Cuban president Alfredo de Zayas y Alfonso and his Conservative Party vice-president, General Francisco Carrillo, as his caricatures made clear.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

Although originally supportive of their successor, Gerardo Machado, once the latter broke his campaign promise and extended his term of office, caricaturists Massaguer, José Cecilio Hernández Cárdenas (Hercar), Ramon Arroyo Cisneros (Arroyito), and Juan Eduardo David Posada (David) all used their satirical wit to embarrass the Cuban President and all were subjected to arrest or fled the island into temporary exile.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gift of Vicki Gold Levi

Caricatures circulated widely either on or between the covers of popular magazines published in the Caribbean, and the South and North American continents. Massaguer’s caricatures of Cuban politicos, world leaders, artists, celebrities, and stars of the silver screen regularly appeared in the “Ellos” and “Cine” sections of his flagship magazine, Social (Havana).

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

 The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gifts of Vicki Gold Levi

His popular illustrations also graced the covers of Carteles (Havana) and Cosmopolitan (New York), and could also be found within the pages of Vanity Fair (New York), and numerous syndicated newspapers.

Contemporary Cuban caricaturists, such as David (Juan Eduardo David Posada, 1911–1981), Hercar (José Cecilio Hernández Cárdenas, 1904–1957), Arroyito (Ramon Arroyo Cisneros, Cuban, 1901–?) also achieved real popularity in that island nation. Their caricatures were reproduced both in Massaguer’s publications, and in the pages of his chief rival, Bohemia (Havana), though only a few of these artists achieved the international acclaim that Massaguer received.

David made his public debut with a solo exhibition in Santa Clara, Cuba in 1931, and was arrested soon after for his political opposition to the regime of President Gerardo Machado. Following Machado’s fall from power, David moved to Havana in 1935 exhibiting and winning awards for works exhibited at the Salón de Humoristas, and publishing his caricatures in the popular Cuban periodicals Social, Patria, Grafos, and Bohemia.

David caricatured a wide variety of world figures, including a scowling portrait of the Duke of Windsor, whom the artist despised as a Nazi sympathizer; a beaming Queen Elizabeth II on her ascension to the British throne; and the troubled former Venezuelan president and exiled opposition leader, Rómulo Betancourt, following a failed attempt on his life ordered by that nation’s military dictatorship.

 Loan, DiazCasas Collection, New York, N.Y

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gift of Vicki Gold Levi

Loan, Yucef Merhi

Born and raised in the Santa Amalia barrio of Havana, the Afro-Cuban boxer José Hernández Cárdenas also won renown as a graphic humorist. His first illustrations were featured in the periodical El País under the pseudonym “Juvenal” in 1923; the following year he participated in the Fourth Salón de Humorismo under his penname, Hercar, a contraction of his two surnames. As early as 1934, he was jailed for lampooning Fulgencio Batista, the army leader who overthrew President Machado the year before. Hercar continued to pen portraits critical of many Cuban politicos, and he was arrested numerous times after Batista returned to power in a 1952 coup.

Loan, DiazCasas Collection, New York, N.Y

Arroyito was born in Havana in 1901, and began publishing caricatures in La Semana, his own periodical, Karikato, and later in Bohemia. Cuban President Machado’s anger over his satires forced him into temporary exile. In this humorous drawing of Ramón Grau San Martin, the artist has the Cuban president demonstrating his keen grasp of the obvious as he exclaims “It appears that it is going to rain!”

Loan, DiazCasas Collection, New York, N.Y

An Arroyito portrait of Fulgencio Batista has him looking like the cat that swallowed the proverbial mouse. The description on the back of the drawing notes Batista’s rise from modest sergeant stenographer to leader of a military coup that ousted President Machado in 1933 and effectively (and often capriciously) ruled the country from behind the scenes for the next eleven years.

Loan, DiazCasas Collection, New York, N.Y

As he had during the Machado regime, Arroyito again left the country after Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries took power. He continued to produce political satires, many of them appearing in Bohemia Libre published by Cuban exiles in Venezuela.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gifts of Vicki Gold Levi

Famed bandleader Xavier Cugat (1900–1990) also earned a reputation as a splendid caricaturist, though he eschewed the biting satires of Cuban politicians that embroiled his fellow Cuban illustrators in controversy. Instead his illustrations parodied other celebrities and promoted Cuban music and culture. He is pictured here working on one of six full-page color illustrations of Latin-American musicians and dancers that appeared in The American Weekly, and in a self-portrait that decorated one of his record jackets.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gifts of Vicki Gold Levi

Of Massaguer’s contemporaries, only Mexican artist and ethnographer Miguel Covarrubias (1904–1957) rivaled his reputation for caricature in the United States of America. Covarrubias moved to New York City in 1924 where he famously documented the Harlem Renaissance, published his first book of celebrity caricatures the following year, and regularly provided illustrations for the covers of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Historical Design

Covarrubias was not afraid of using his pictorial wit to puncture the inflated egos of world leaders and rising dictators. When Italian officials complained about Covarrubias’ depiction of Mussolini on the cover of Vanity Fair, Condé Nast editors diplomatically replied that unlike the photograph, a “conspicuous caricature” provided “vivid interpretation” of the personalities, and ought to be regarded as “an acknowledgement of world importance, rather than an insult.”

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Covarrubia’s wit and humor are in evidence in his satirically titled book of caricatures, The Prince of Wales and Other Famous Americans, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1925.

 The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Historical Design

Within its pages, Covarrubias lampooned all sorts of famous Americans and international celebrities, ranging from U.S. president Calvin Coolidge, silent film star Charlie Chaplin, industrialist John D. Rockefeller, and baseball player Babe Ruth.

 The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Historical Design

Caricaturists not only contributed to the concept of modern “celebrity”; their witty renderings sometimes made celebrities of their irreverent illustrators. Many caricaturists produced self-deprecating self-portraits or were satirized by other sketch artists.

Covarrubias self-portrait, The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Historical Design

Covarrubias caricature by Massaguer, The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gift of Vicki G. Levi

Conrado Massaguer included in his autobiography a 1916 portrait of Italian operatic tenor, Enrico Caruso, as well as one of himself made by that famous singer.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gift of Vicki Gold Levi

Another caricaturist who achieved notoriety in the United States was the Mexican illustrator, Antonio Arias Bernal (1914–1960), who was described on his death in The New York Times as “the most strident voice in Latin America against the dictators of the Second World War.” His caricatures regularly adorned the covers of Hoy [Today] and Siempre! [Always], two of the most popular weeklies of their kind in Mexico. He also made the covers of American magazines as Colliers.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

When U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to encourage neutral Latin American countries to join the Allied war effort, Arias Bernal was commissioned by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) to create anti-Axis posters and an illustrated deck of cards to spread that message. The posters for the project were completed eight months before the peace was signed, but the playing cards project was discontinued as the war’s end was in sight.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Martijn F. Le Coultre

Massaguer contributed some of the most memorable anti-Axis propaganda in Cuba, reproduced as magazine and cookbook illustrations and advertisements.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gifts of Vicki Gold Levi

Such humorous and irreverent wartime illustrations not only poked fun at enemy leaders; they were instrumental in raising and maintaining morale on the home front. We hope that those of you living in or planning a visit to South Florida will take advantage of the opportunity to see some of these caricatures in person.

Italian Ethiopia at The Wolfsonian Library

This past month, The Wolfsonian Library hosted a three-week visit by James De Lorenzi, hailing from John Jay College (CUNY) and enjoying one of our Wolfsonian fellowships. Dr. De Lorenzi is currently working on a project about the Italian Orientalist scholar, Enrico Cerulli (1898–1988), and the ways in which his knowledge of East African anthropology, folklore, linguistics, and history was placed in the service of the Italian propaganda campaign and colonization project undertaken by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist state. While a simple search of our library catalog did not bring up any books penned by Cerulli, the fellow was impressed with how much primary source literature and visual propaganda we have concerning the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935–1936. Many of these materials were originally purchased from History Revealed or donated by some of our long-term supporters such as Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with Founder Funds

Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 was not the first time that the Italians attempted participate in the “scramble for Africa” or to turn Ethiopia into a colonial possession. Between 1887 to 1889, the Italian monarchy fought a war with the Ethiopian Empire that resulted in the Italian annexation of Eritrea and a treaty of peace that the Italian victors interpreted as effectively establishing an Italian protectorate over the region disputed by the Ethiopian Emperor, Menelik II. As early as 1893, Italian colonial troops in Italian Eritrea invaded Ethiopia, with a full-scale war being fought between 1895 and 1896. The 100,000 strong indigenous army inflicted a decisive defeat of the 20,000 Italian troops led by General Baratieri at the Battle of Adwa, killing 7,000 and capturing 3,000 more, with another 2,000 of their Eritrean Ascari allies dying in battle or being slaughtered after surrendering. The surviving colonial troops retreated back to Eritrea. The Wolfsonian Library holds a rare collecting card produced by the Compagnia Italiana Liebig in Milano that commemorates the battle.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, purchase

In the wake of Benito Mussolini’s march on Rome in 1922 and the subsequent assumption of dictatorial power by his National Fascist Party (PNF), Il Duce would begin to clamor for Italy’s “place in the sun.” Although Libya was colonized in the 1910s, the Fascist state would turn its attention back to Ethiopia in the mid-1930s, first embarking on a propaganda campaign to “educate” the Italian people about the region, and afterwards to publicize supposed Ethiopian barbarism, savagery, and atrocities committed against Italian nationals to court public opinion, curry favor at the League of Nations, and ultimately, to justify their military invasion.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with Founder Funds

Once the invasion and colonization began in earnest in 1935, the Fascist regime produced a barrage of visual material for domestic consumption. Perhaps most disturbing of these materials are those that targeted the young and that perverted educational materials into manipulative propaganda. One game taught young Italians about the geography, history, and natural resources of Ethiopia, while another game board produced by a patriotic baby food company encouraged them to crisscross the country to be the first to capture the capital of Addis Abeba.

 

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian Library also holds numerous school notebooks with color illustrated front covers depicting Italian troops not as invaders, but as heroic and triumphant “liberators” welcomed by the Ethiopian populous for abolishing slavery.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Lucia Stafanelli Torossi

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Other mass-produced items included a series of postcards illustrated by Aurelio Bertiglia (1891–1973). The artist used images of children in colonial military uniform fraternizing with friendly natives to imply that comraderie and friendly relations rather than animosity and violence were the norm during the colonization of Ethiopia.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.

As an enticement to colonial military service, the regime printed pamphlets, posters, and display cards depicting heroic Italian soldiers winning honor and glory in battle.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.

Popular Italian periodicals used caricature and pictorial wit and humor to ridicule Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and the supposed temerity of their Ethiopian adversaries. One cover of Il Travaso delle Idee depicts Ethiopian technology as rudimentary and primitive; another depicts an Ethiopian male rousting his wife from bed in order to wave the sheet as a white flag of surrender at the approach of the Italians.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Promised gift

While musical scores and razor packages reminded Italian men of the triumphal reversal of fortunes in Adwa in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935–1936, pocket-sized calendar booklets reminded these same clean-shaven conscripts that every Italian woman adored a man in a uniform.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.

Other materials aimed at young Italian males offered up images of the “Black Venus” on everything from hygiene pamphlets, fans, to calendar leaves to invite them to equate military and sexual conquest.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.

While Italians were being encouraged to celebrate and take pride in the establishment of their new empire, British colonial boosters and anti-imperialists alike published maps of the region and tracts critical of Italian interlopers.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

The British consular corps and concerned American citizens groups and anti-Fascists also published pamphlets that reproduced abstracts of testimony at the League of Nations questioning the claims and motives of the Fascist invaders.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Promised Gift

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchase

Other nations produced scathing critiques of the Italian invasion of the last autonomous nation in Africa. The Turks were particularly strong in visually lambasting Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia with biting caricatures printed on the covers of the popular magazine, Akbaba, ridiculing Mussolini’s pretensions to empire, and the savagery of his use of poison gas and bloody reprisals to subdue the country.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Promised Gift

When the League of Nations imposed economic sanctions and trade restrictions on Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia, Mussolini ignored the protestations and his government continued to produce all sorts of publications documenting their road-building efforts and “civilizing” mission in Africa.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds donated by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.

By May 1936, the Italians formally annexed the country, though Ethiopian rebels continued to resist, with many killed in Marshal Graziani’s cruel and bloody reprisals. As neither Great Britain nor France recognized the legitimacy of Italian Ethiopia and the League of Nations had imposed punitive economic sanctions, the Fascist state embarked upon a policy of Autarky (economic self-sufficiency) with the aim of replacing lost trade with goods and new materials that could be produced within the confines of their new Empire.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Fascist regime also encouraged Italians emigration to their new colony by celebrating their efforts in elaborately decorated, large-format books.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Historical Design

Once the Second World War began, Italy would find their imperial possessions in Africa under attack. To encourage neutral Latin American countries to join the Allied war effort, the U.S. government commissioned Mexican artist Antonio Arias Bernal to create an illustrated deck of anti-Axis caricature playing cards to spread that message. The posters for the project were completed and printed in portfolio format eight months before the peace was signed. But as the war’s end was in sight, the project was discontinued, though the artist privately printed and distributed a small number of the playing cards. Two of Arias Bernal’s images questioned the legitimacy of Italian East Africa: one print depicts Mussolini as a modern Nero, playing the fiddle while Africa burns while the next pictures exiled Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie heading for Geneva and London to lodge a complaint with the League of Nations and seek aid as the dictator presents his crown to King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Martijn F. Le Coultre

While Italian colonial troops invaded British Somaliland in 1940, by the spring of 1941 British forces counterattacked deep into Ethiopian territory, restoring Haile Selassie to the throne by early May. The Italian army surrendered after their defeat at Gondor, and while a few Italian Black-shirted guerrillas continued to resist, arrangements were made with the British to repatriate Italian civilians back to Italy under the auspices of the International Red Cross. The Vulcania, an Italian passenger ship commandeered and converted into a troopship during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and again during the Second World War, was among the vessels dispatched on such missions. The Wolfsonian Library holds a rare photograph album produced by the Ministero Africa Italiana in 1942 documenting that evacuation and the end of Italian imperial ambitions in East Africa.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Maria Paola Maino

Oblivious to the realities of their military situation in Africa, as late as 1942 Fascist propaganda continued to promise that the Italians would return.

Ironically, in the twenty-first century, many thousands of North Africans have been crossing the Mediterranean by way of Italy’s former colony in Libya to begin new lives in Southern Europe.

June 30, 2017. Refugees arrive at Augusta, Sicily. Rescue boats have brought more than 10,000 migrants to Italy this week. EMILIO MORENATTI/AP
Image courtesy of Tom thetimes.co.uk

In Memoriam: Dr. Marjan Groot

The staff at The Wolfsonian–Florida International University were saddened to learn this week of the recent and unexpected passing of Dr. Marjan Groot, a former Wolfsonian fellow, academic partner, and longtime friend of the institution. Marjan studied Cultural Anthropology and Art History in Amsterdam and Leiden, graduating from the Academy for Art and Design in Amsterdam and earning a doctorate in the Humanities from the University of Leiden. Most recently, she taught the history of Western design and decorative arts as an associate professor and senior lecturer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

I first had the pleasure of meeting Marjan when she came to The Wolfsonian as a research fellow in the summer months of June and July 2003. The Wolfsonian Library possesses the largest holdings of Nieuwe Kunst (or Dutch Art Nouveau) book bindings outside of The Netherlands, all published between 1880 and the 1920s and purchased by our museum founder, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. in the 1990s. While most of these books could be found in various libraries in her homeland, Marjan was eager to explore our collection where she could see all of the books together in one place. Our holdings also include the original cover art drawings—complete with publishing house comments and suggestions for changes—normally discarded after the books were produced. Elsewhere in the museum, the books and ephemera are complemented by decorative arts objects and furniture made by the same artists.

While the library staff had already catalogued most of the books in this collection, our bibliographic records only identified those bindings produced by famous Dutch artists like Jan Toorop (1858–1928), Theo Neuhuys (1878–1921), L. W. R. Wenckebach (1860–1937), Theo. W. Nieuwenhuis (1866–1951), Carel Adolph Lion Cachet (1864–1945), Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof (1866–1924), for which there is more than adequate documentation in Ernst Braches’ seminal study. Marjan’s particular area of interest was Dutch decorative arts and the Modernist movement during the period 1880–1940, and reclaiming the role played by marginalized and largely ignored women designers.

Book Cover Design by Wilhelmina Cornelia Drupsteen

Book cover design by Willemina Polenaar

When Marjan arrived to work on her own independent study project, we were delighted to find that she was more than generous in sharing her work and discoveries with us. Not only did she help us identify the many less-renowned but equally talented Dutch women artists represented in our collection, but showed us how to recognize their often subtle makers’ marks and initials. Because of her review of our materials and records, we were able to substantially improve our bibliographic records of our holdings.

Book cover designs by Anna Sipkema

Marjan was so enamored of our collection that she returned to The Wolfsonian many times over the course of her academic career. Between October and November 2004, and most of the month of May 2005, she visited our institution to review the collection, all the while helping us to provide English translations of titles and other information to make our holdings more accessible to the community of scholars around the world. As a direct result of her invaluable aid and assistance, we can acknowledge and share with the public the art of Dutch women designers such as Anna Sipkema (1877–1933), Cornelia van der Hart (1851–1940), Fabea Elisabeth Lydia Brandt (1853–1907), and Wilhelmina Cornelia Drupsteen (1880–1966).

Designs by Anna Sipkema

Book Designs by Cornelia van der Hart

Book Design by Elisabeth (Fabea Elisabeth Lydia) Brandt

Book Cover Design by Willemina Drupsteen

Marjan returned to Miami Beach in January 2012, where she was invited to participate to a multi-day curatorial research project partially sponsored by public funds from the Netherlands Cultural Services. Marjan collaborated with our own curators, Silvia Barisione and Marianne Lamonaca, and three other scholars: Frans Leidelmeijer, Dutch decorative arts expert; Mienke Simon Thomas, senior curator of decorative arts and design at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam; and Esther Cleven, curator at the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar and expert on Dutch graphic design. It was in the course of this workshop that the group considered possible themes for a future exhibition mainly drawn from own Dutch holdings.

Photographed by Lynton Gardiner

When the exhibition Modern Dutch Design came to fruition in November 2016, Marjan returned to Miami Beach for the opening, having played no small part in its preparation and success. Not only did she contribute an essay to the catalog, titled: “Another Perspective: Women in Dutch Decorative Art and Design,” but she also introduced the exhibition organizers to contemporary Dutch artist Christie van der Haak, who provided an amazing treatment of the museum’s façade and lobby, More Is More, to celebrate the show.

Marjan visited The Wolfsonian Library and Miami twice more because of her love of the museum and the city. She returned to Miami in May 2017 and again in November, where she read a paper, “Art Deco Design between the Netherlands and Belgium: the Case of the Kuijken Family, 1918–1940,” at the ICDAD Annual Meeting in Miami held at The Wolf in November 2017.

Marjan will be sorely missed by all of us who had the great privilege of getting to know her and admire her generosity of spirit. We can be sure, however, that her legacy of celebrating women artists and designers will live on in her academic and curatorial contributions to the field, in the lives of the students she taught and influenced, in the artwork she loved, and in the memories of her family and colleagues.

The Artwork and Caricatures of Conrado Walter Massaguer

This Thursday and Friday, The Wolfsonian–Florida International University will celebrate a promised gift by Vicki Gold Levi of artwork and ephemera with the opening of Cuban Caricature and Culture: The Art of Massaguer, an installation of works by the celebrated Cuban artist, caricaturist, and publisher, Conrado Walter Massaguer (1889–1965). In the process of organizing an installation, the curator begins with the widest range of works for possible inclusion, and slowly winnows down that selection to just those items that best support the central themes and the physical limitations of the exhibition space. Inevitably, many excellent works and much text gets culled. This post will include some items from the installation, but will also feature some items that deserved inclusion but did not make the final cut.

Loan, Leonard Finger, Private Collection

Born in Cárdenas, Cuba, Conrado spent his formative years freely moving between his homeland, Mexico, and the United States. To escape the hostilities of the Cuban Independence wars, the Massaguer family fled to Mérida, Yúcatan, México when Conrado was only seven and returned after the establishment of the Cuban Republic in 1902. Believing their son would benefit from an education in the United States, his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Throughout his life, Massaguer easily crossed national borders, internalizing and synthesizing the social trends and artistic movements of North America, Europe, and Latin America, and becoming a trendsetter and taste-maker in his native Cuba.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

In the early 1900s, Massaguer’s artwork graced the covers of El Figaro magazine, where his illustrations first explored many of the themes that would interest him throughout his life: imaging the “new woman” (or flapper) ideal; promoting Cuba as a tourist destination; and satirizing and caricaturing public figures.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

As early as 1910, Massaguer turned his artistic talents to profit when he co-founded “Mercurio,” his first advertising agency. Six years later, he founded the Instituto de Artes Gráficas and another advertising firm, “Kesevén Anuncios.” Together with his brother, Oscar, Conrado co-founded the short-lived Grafico (1913–1918) and two of Cuba’s most influential magazines, Social (1916–1933, 1935–1937), catering to and shaping the cultural tastes of the island nation’s elites, and Carteles (1919–1960), aimed at a more popular audience.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Ads designed by Massaguer’s advertising firms often depicted nationally and internationally recognized politicians and celebrities (such as Charlie Chaplin and Cuban president Gerardo Machado) hawking Cuban products or promoting local establishments; these typically appeared in the many magazines he and his brother published.

Massaguer ad for chocolate using a caricature of Charlie Chaplin

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Keseven ad with Massaguer caricature of Cuban President Machado

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

Loan, Emilio Cueto Private Collection

After the Great War ended and Cuban officials decided to promote the island as a tourist destination for North Americans, Massaguer represented Cuba at the World Convention of Advertisers meeting in New Orleans. In the decades that followed, he provided artwork for hotel brochures, advertisements, and posters promoting his homeland as an island paradise for the Cuban Tourist Commission.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Collection

While the Great Depression and political strife under the Machado dictatorship dampened enthusiasm for tourism in the 1930s, Massaguer continued to keep the Cuba dream alive.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Massaguer painted a mural for one of the principal salons of the Cuban pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair that depicted world leaders and celebrities ogling a Cuban rumba dancer. A scandal arose after someone in the Cuban government denounced it, claiming it had caused offense with the American public; Cuban President Laredo Bru preemptively ordered it painted over.

As art director and publisher, Massaguer mingled with local politicos, foreign dignitaries, and visiting celebrities, many of whom he parodied in his syndicated caricatures. In Cuba, he was responsible for disseminating modernist aesthetics and graphics and mentoring and promoting avant-garde artists such as Jaime Valls.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Collection

During Massaguer’s early stays in New York, he drew inspiration from the American artist Charles Dana Gibson’s popularization of late Victorian high society and debutantes with his “Gibson Girls.”

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

As an unapologetic modernist, Massaguer made Social a vehicle for shaking up conservative Cuban society. In first year of the publication of Social, Massaguer introduced an illustrated feature, wryly captioned “Massa-Girls”—a play on the sound of his surname, but also having bawdy connotations since “masa” was the Cuban slang word for describing female flesh.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

On its covers and within its pages, Massaguer promoted the “new woman”  in his portraits of beautiful, young Cuban women who dared to “bob their hair,” discard constraining Victorian corsets and values, and embrace social and sexual liberation.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Collection

Though Massaguer frequently produced idealized illustrations of beautiful women, he rarely caricatured the female sex in the same way that he regularly exaggerated the features of male celebrities and leaders.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

In fact, after the noted American composer Mana-Zucca introduced Massaguer to members of the Miami Music Club in April 1926, The Miami News quoted him as modestly claiming to be a better husband than caricaturist. Having described himself as being on excellent terms with his mother-in-law, he admitted that he hadn’t “done her caricature—perhaps that’s the reason we get along.” When pressed, he told the reporter that “I don’t mind making a man’s caricature” but that he was “timid about making a woman’s.” There were some rare exceptions.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Massaguer frequently traveled back and forth between his homeland, the U.S., and Europe, exhibiting his work in galleries, contributing to magazines, and establishing his reputation as one of the most celebrated caricaturists of world leaders and celebrities. He adopted a modernist approach to caricature, believing that a simple, fine line and a spontaneous, secretive hand better captured the essence of a subject than a studied and highly edited portrait made of a posed or posturing subject. As early as 1911, Massaguer had gained recognition for his popular caricatures with a solo exhibition of this work at the Havana Ateneo. In 1921 he founded La Primera Exposicíon de Humor and the following year published Guignol [Puppet Show], a collection of his most popular caricatures.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Full-page color caricatures of Cuban politicians and world leaders and celebrities were a regular feature of the “Ellos” section of Social.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

As an illustrator and publisher, Massaguer was directly involved in shaping the art scene in Cuba and in promoting avant-garde aesthetics. He was an active member of the Minoristas and provided a caricature portrait of the group for a spread in his Social.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

Massaguer straddled the worlds of Havana and New York City during important moments of his career. Determined to make a name for himself in “populosa Manhattan,” Massaguer created a calling card to introduce himself to New York society, describing himself as “yet young, single and easy to look at.” When he disembarked in New York in November 1924, however, he arrived with his new bride, a niece of the former Cuban president Mario G. Menocal. After honeymooning at the Waldorf-Astoria, Massaguer established a studio in the city and contributed cover art and caricatures to many quintessential American magazines.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Collection

Some of Massaguer’s artwork celebrating Cuban life and culture was exhibited at the Delphic Studio in New York City.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gifts

A page in his Social proudly noted that “The reviews in the newspapers and the art magazines have all had praise for Massaguer, whose New and Noisy triumph in the great Yankee metropolis so difficult for the foreign artist to conquer, fills those of us working for this magazine with intimate satisfaction and pride because it signifies triumph not only for our compatriot, but also for our publication and for Cuba.”

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

Cuban president Gerardo Machado’s repudiation of a campaign promise not to seek a second term, coupled with economic chaos and ruthless repression of dissent, pushed many early supporters like Massaguer into the dissident camp.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

In 1929 Massaguer eschewed political strife at home by sailing for Paris. There he exhibited 40 color caricatures before traveling to the League of Nations conference in Geneva, Switzerland to make caricatures of the world leaders in attendance for the King Features Syndicate. News of the Stock Market Crash and violence and repression in Cuba convinced Massaguer to returned to New York City in 1931 as a political exile; he remained there for much of the decade in far more humble circumstances. Economic and political difficulties necessitated the suspension of Social and Carteles, and he concentrated on providing cover art and humorous portraits of celebrities for American magazines and books such as Cosmo Hamilton’s People Worth Talking About (1933).

Massaguer caricature of Rudyard Kipling

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

As political turmoil in Cuba and global economic depression forced him to suspend publication of Social, Massaguer provided American magazines and publications with cover art and illustrations.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Once Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to office, Massaguer began supplying witty caricatures of his controversial National Recovery Administration (NRA) program aimed at reviving the economy.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Massaguer was back in Cuba during the Second World War, where he put his caricature to use in the service of the Allies.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

The U.S.-Cuba tourist trade flourished in the post-war 1950s, and Massaguer greeted and sketched visiting foreign dignitaries and celebrities in his capacity as public relations director of the Instituto Cubano de Turismo.

Massaguer painting Maurice Chevalier, Loan, Ramiro Fernández

Towards the end of his long career, Massaguer self-published an illustrated autobiography reproducing some of his most popular caricatures.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Towards the close of the decade, Cuba’s thriving tourist trade was once again interrupted by political strife as revolutionaries sought to depose President Batista, who had assumed power by a coup. Following the overthrow of the Batista regime in 1959, Massaguer published a book providing the first caricatures of Castro and his triumphant revolutionaries.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

Ironically, many of the advertisements within depict the bearded revolutionaries enjoying and hawking classic American products, like Coca-Cola, Buick, Jell-o, and other brands soon to be taboo once Castro nationalized businesses and relations with the U.S. grew strained.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

But Fidel Castro’s revolution would soon prove to be too radical for Massaguer and the social order he once knew, influenced, and celebrated with his long-defunct magazine, Social. The last of Massaguer’s popular magazines, Carteles, would stop being distributed in 1960 and the former publisher would finish out his remaining days quietly working in the Cuban National Archives.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Promised Gift

We hope to see you at the opening party (free to the public) one week from today. The event, co-presented by The New Tropic, features live music by Son Cubano, dancing, and Bacardi mojitos. RSVP here.

 

Memorial Day Reflections on the Spanish-American War and World War II

This month, the Wolfsonian librarians provided special access to two war-related collections in our holdings. Early in May, Judith Berson-Levinson, the daughter of a Second World War veteran, called to let us know that her long-awaited book, South Beach at War: Sun, Sand and Soldiers during WWII, had been published. As a local NBC affiliate contacted her about participating in a Memorial Day special, she asked us if we would host the interview so that she could include some of the “Sand in their Boots” memorabilia she had donated to our collection. Her timing could not have been better, as we had just de-installed an installation of some of her rare materials from a student-curated display at Florida International University.

Unconstrained by the limitations of cases, we laid out some of these same items and others that demonstrated Miami Beach’s importance as an Army Air Forces Technical Training Command center during the Second World War. Gleaned from WWII veterans and their families, the Judith Berson-Levinson Collection includes such diverse materials as photograph albums, matchcovers, membership cards, menus, magazines, postcards, pamphlets, and military graduation yearbooks.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Judith Berson-Levinson

This collection also includes a sound recording and numerous pillowcases made for the AAF servicemen stationed in Miami Beach to send home to relatives, sweethearts, and wives before being transferred to the combat zones.

As noted in an earlier post about the student installation, the materials in this collection document Miami Beach’s transformation from a winter vacation destination into an Army Air Corps training camp. Hundreds of Art Deco hotels had been converted into barracks, mess halls, and education centers.

he Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Judith Berson-Levinson

The transformation of Miami Beach did not end in 1945; having exposed so many GIs to the beauty and recreational opportunities of South Florida, many of these veterans returned with their families to vacation here at the war’s end, while many others decided to return to spend their golden years in the Sunshine State as retirees.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Judith Berson-Levinson

After completing her interview, Judith was gracious and generous enough to donate several more items to be added to the “Sand in their Boots” archive, including a group photograph, photograph album, an AAF Officer Candidate and Officer Training School dinner program, and some additional decorated pillowcases and handkerchiefs (sent as mementos to loved ones by GI shipping out overseas).

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Judith Berson-Levinson

Be sure to catch Judith’s interview on NBC or visit the website links to her interview.

Later on in May, we were contacted by Tania Caragol, a curator at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Ms. Caragol had scheduled a research visit last November and had examined a number of historical bindings related to the Spanish-American War (1898) for possible inclusion in an exhibition about that conflict. She returned this month with Kim Sajet, the first woman to serve as the director of the National Portrait Gallery and eleven other Smithsonian enthusiasts touring South Florida. After a meet and greet with our own director, Tim Rodgers, the visitors were conducted up to the library to see a display of rare books and sheet music covers selected by Ms. Caragol documenting the three-month war.

Ms. Caragol led discussions about the materials on the tables and we jointly talked about some of the propaganda campaigns used to stir up animosity towards Spain to justify American intervention in Cuba’s war for independence.

In waging a newspaper circulation war to sell their papers, Joseph Pulitzer (publisher of the New York World) and William Randolph Hearst (publisher of the New York Journal, and Pulitzer’s competitor) greatly contributed to war hysteria by printing lurid, exaggerated, and sometimes fabricated Spanish atrocities committed against Cuban civilians. In fighting an insurgent population, the Spanish General Valeriano Weyler decided to separate the rebels from potential supporters. By 1897, General Weyler had forced more than 300,000 civilians from their homes into “reconcentration camps” where thousands died of disease and starvation. While such legitimate atrocities helped mobilize American opinion in favor of the rebels, the yellow press deployed sensationalized headlines and followed with dramatic and lurid stories to demonize Spain and to personalize the plight of the Cuban people.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

William R. Hearst seized upon the case of eighteen-year-old Cuban girl, Evangelina Cisneros, the beautiful daughter of a Cuban revolutionary. Hearst’s New York Journal published a serial diary of her trials and tribulations as she fended off the lascivious advances of a Spanish official who alternated between promises of protection and prosecution and subjected her to an indefinite stay in a Havana prison. Not content to report the news, Hearst ordered his reporter, Karl Decker, to help organize a prison break, get her to the port in disguise, and smuggle her out of the country. After spiriting her to the United States, Hearst organized parades and a media blitz which culminated in a visit with the president. Afterwards, the serialized news stories and interviews describing her imprisonment and daring rescue and escape were published in book format.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

In an anecdote disputed by some historians, the famous illustrator Frederick Remington (sent by Hearst to Cuba to document the battles) cabled the publisher to report that there was no war to cover. The publisher allegedly responded by telling him, “You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war.” Whether or not the words attributed to Hearst were spoken or cabled, most historians agree that the “yellow press” certainly contributed to the call for U.S. intervention in the war. Ultimately, though, it was the mysterious explosion of the warship USS Maine while anchored in Havana’s harbor that provided the pivotal piece of pro-war propaganda. Just as “Remember the Alamo” became the rallying cry in the war for Texas independence in 1836, it found an echo in 1898 in the slogan “Remember the Maine.” With little or no evidence to back up their claims, irresponsible journalists and publishers reported that a Spanish mine or torpedo had killed the 260 sailors and sunk the American battleship. Popular patriotic sheet music covers combined the colors of the flag, with images of the Maine to rally and call Americans to arms.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Joseph K. Albertson Collection, Gift of the Monroe County Public Library, Key West, Fla.

While an official American investigation at the time confirmed the claims of jingoistic journalists and their publicity-minded publishers, subsequent underwater investigations of the sinking by U.S. Navy experts made in 1976 concluded that an internal explosion was at fault and postulated that a coal bunker fire was the most likely culprit. Based on the contemporary evidence and the war hysteria raised by the yellow journalist press, Congress declared war on Spain on April 25, 1898.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

The Wolfsonian Library holds a large collection of beautifully bound books published to promote and to celebrate the brief war with Spain, donated by the late collector and amateur historian Frederic A. Sharf. Many self-congratulatory titles praised the American people for extending the blessings of liberty and freedom to Spain’s oppressed colonies.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

Other books and memorabilia celebrated Admiral Dewey’s spectacular naval successes at Manila Bay with the Asiatic Squadron and created a hero of Teddy Roosevelt, who had resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to form his “Rough Riders” volunteer cavalry regiment that participated in the Battle of Kettle Hill.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with Founder’s Fund

The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

Although there were influential anti-imperialists at work in the nation, other publications were designed to instill a sense of pride in America’s new colonial possessions. Americans were also “introduced” to the peoples of their new possessions in the Philippines at “human zoo” pavilions established at subsequent world’s fairs in the United States.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Colleciton

Other items on display for the group included sheet music covers and ephemera covering similar propagandistic themes. Hundreds of these musical scores from the Joseph K. Albertson Collection were donated to our library by the Monroe County Public Library in Key West, Florida—a gift facilitated by Anne Layton Rice.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Joseph K. Albertson Collection, Gift of the Monroe County Public Library, Key West, Fla.

Other ephemeral items came from Vicki Gold Levi as a promised gift to The Wolfsonian Library. One of our summer volunteer interns, Julia Ricks, has been helping us catalog these items.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Promised gifts of Vicki Gold Levi

Be sure to visit our museum’s digital image catalog to see these and other items regularly being catalogued, digitized, and uploaded.

A Flurry of Wolfsonian Library Installations and Displays

This past month, the Wolfsonian librarians were particularly busy dealing with a flurry of installations and displays at the museum, and Florida International University campus. We closed one installation, All Roads Lead to Rome; opened another, Deco Designs; installed a student-curated installation, World War II and The Wolf, in the Green Library at the Modesto Maidique Campus; and put together and presented a temporary library display for the museum’s public program, PosterFest, on the theme of AIDS awareness and prevention.

World War II and The Wolf involved a collaborative project between the FIU Professor Terrence G. Peterson and the students taking his history class on the Second World War. Over the course of the semester, 45 students scheduled 17 research visits to The Wolfsonian Library to conduct research on specific historical archives documenting the war years. Althea (Vicki) Silvera, head, Special Collections & University Archivist, generously arranged for the student’s selections to be displayed at the Green Library.

These included photographs and memorabilia preserved in the Aristotle [Chakiris] Ares USS Yorktown Collection and the Mel Victor WWII Pacific Theater Photograph Collection.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Aristotle Ares

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Donna Victor, in memory of her father, Mel Victor

In examining the materials from these two servicemen’s archives, some of the students were particularly struck by what they saw as attempts by the servicemen to entertain themselves and keep up morale during the many “hours of boredom” and other images that capture “moments of terror” and the devastation and horrors of combat.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Aristotle Ares

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Donna Victor, in memory of her father, Mel Victor

Other students in Dr. Peterson’s class were interested in the transformations that took place locally as the country geared up for war and Miami and Miami Beach were mobilized and placed on a war-footing.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Judith Berson-Levinson

Because of the threat posed by German submarines prowling the coastal waters, Miami Beach was transformed from a seasonal vacation resort into an Army Air Forces training base.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Judith Berson-Levinson

Carl Fisher’s grand hotels of the 1920s, the Nautilus and the Old King Cole, were converted into military hospitals while hundreds of the more modest Art Deco hotels on Miami Beach were converted into barracks, mess halls, and instruction centers.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Judith Berson-Levinson

Some of Dr. Peterson’s students used the Judith Berson-Levinson “Sand in Their Boots” Collection to focus on the transformation of women’s lives on the mainland, as women were encouraged to work as riveters and welders at the Miami Air Depot.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Judith Berson-Levinson

Others looked at a series of Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) postcards that provide a humorous look at how war service radically affected gender roles and relations and changed American women’s lives.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

A set of original postcards and correspondence between Dolores (“Lolly”) S. Lesseraux and her older brother and serviceman, Dick, provided more personal insights into the actual feelings and real-life experiences of a young woman growing up in America during the war years.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Dolores Trenner

Finally, several students mined the Victory Gold Levi Collection, an assemblage of patriotic home-front propaganda and paraphernalia, for messages motivating adherence to rationing, making do, and otherwise promoting the “V for Victory” campaign in the United States.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Victory Gold Levi

This same month, the library closed its installation showcasing tourism to Italy during the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, which included some colorful proofs designed by Futurist artist, Fortunato Depero, and opened a new one focused on vibrant pochoir (stencilwork) prints in the Art Deco style.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The new installation, Deco Designs, was curated by Wolfsonian library collections specialist Erin Heffron and features oversized portfolio plates, including some newly acquired pieces donated by Historical Design, New York that show how scientific studies of bugs and butterflies could be geometrized and made into decorative motifs and repetitive patterns for Deco-inspired wallpaper and textile designs.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Historical Design

The Wolfsonian’s digital collections curator, Yucef Merhi, created an interactive interface to allow our visitors to flip through the pages of some of these portfolios cover to cover.

In addition to editing and curating these installations, the library staff also organized a temporary display of library materials to complement our public programing participation in year two of Posterfest: Design for Good. The Wolf partnered with AIGA Miami and the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, inviting graphic design artists to create new HIV/AIDS awareness posters inspired by classics from the Wolfsonian collection that went on display in our lobby.

In the library, visitors were encouraged to peruse historical artifacts and public health propaganda aimed at preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

The materials on display ranged from 1930s sex advice pamphlets,

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

…Federal Arts Project and Second World War-era public health and propaganda posters,

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

…Second World War sex education pamphlets for G.I.s,

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

…popular Physical Culture magazines with articles on sex,

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Robert Young

…to books, periodicals, and pulp paperbacks offering tantalizing glimpses into the taboo world of “social and asocial” sexual behaviors.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Vicki Gold Levi

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

By far the most popular work on display was a recently donated copy of Madonna’s infamous 1992 Sex book, which began with a “safe sex saves lives” admonishment urging the “mandatory” use of condoms before it delved into a photographic essay on erotic fantasy.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Historical Design

Celebrating International Women’s Day 2019 with the Girls Scouts

This past March 8, in honor of International Women’s Day, Girl Scout Troop 1239 came to The Wolfsonian–FIU for a guided tour led by curator Shoshana Resnikoff. Following their walk through the galleries, the scouts and their troop leaders came down to the library to view some rare books and ephemera. As this year’s theme stressed the ideals of a gender-balanced world, we had pulled some materials related to female-oriented youth movements, the Suffragette movement, and the work of Arts and Crafts book designer and illuminator Violet Oakley.

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Aside from a couple of vintage handbooks, The Wolfsonian Library does not hold an abundance of works specifically documenting the Girl Scouts or the scouting movement.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Joel Hoffman

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

We do, however, have a strong collection of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and National Youth Administration (NYA) materials from the New Deal era. With an estimated half-million young men and couple hundred thousand young women hopping freight trains and hitchhiking across the country in a desperate and futile search for work during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt impelled to immediately address the problem of youth homelessness and delinquency.

As a long-term supporter of the Boy Scouts, Roosevelt created the CCC with the aim of taking these malnourished kids off the streets and training them to do forestry work and conservation in camps established throughout the nation’s state and national parks and forests.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Christopher DeNoon Collection for the Study of New Deal Culture

Within three month of taking office in March 1933 at the nadir of the Depression, FDR had enrolled 250,000 young men in the program. Under military oversight and discipline, Roosevelt’s “Tree Army” were planting billions of trees, fighting forest fires, and clearing paths and building roads and bridges and their own self-confidence as primary supporters of their families back home.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Promised Gift

All but one of the camps, however, were exclusively set up for young men, and the one exception provided young women with gendered “home economics” training rather than forestry skills. At First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s insistence that the President not forget the ladies, the National Youth Administration was devised to provide a more diverse, gender-balanced vocational education and training for young men, women, and minorities.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Christopher DeNoon Collection for the Study of New Deal Culture

Even as President Roosevelt launched his CCC and NYA programs, totalitarian regimes in Europe were fostering their own brand of youth movements tied to service to the state. Drawing on the mythical origins of the ancient founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus—supposedly suckled and raised by a she-wolf—Italian dictator Benito Mussolini created the Figli della Lupa (or children of the she-wolf) and the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB).

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

In contrast to the rather benign English and American scouting motto: “Be prepared,” the Fascist indoctrinated their own youth groups with the mantra: “Believe, obey, fight” and had their uniformed children trained in military marching and drill with dummy rifles.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Mussolini and the Fascists were notoriously anti-feminist in their views, so while young women were encouraged to join youth groups and participate in athletic competition, their physical and educational training stressed healthy bodies and brainwashed minds designed to incubate and inculcate the future generation of Fascist soldiers.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Similarly gender-sensitive youth organizations established themselves in Portugal and Spain under Fascist rule, and when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Fuhrer also fashioned his own Hitler Jugend after the Fascist Italian model.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

The Wolfsonian–FIU, gift of Steve Heller

Although Communist propaganda stressed gender equality, the Soviet Union’s Young Pioneer groups seem to have both broken and reinforced stereotyped gender roles.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, gift of Steve Heller

In addition to the materials on scouting and youth movements, the visiting Girl Scout troop also learned a bit about the Woman’s Suffrage movement. While The Wolfsonian Library possesses a few works by the famous English suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst, the librarians have also recently catalogued and digitized a set of satirical pro-and anti-suffragette themed postcards from Great Britain.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Promised Gift

As can be seen, women’s participation in the war effort during the Great War helped propel the suffrage cause forward, though many men were still clinging to sexist and chauvinistic views toward the “fairer sex.”

The Wolfsonian–FIU

We ended the Girl Scout group’s tour with a look at a work by the American artist Violet Oakley (1874–1961) that documents the important role played by women delegates to the 10^th Assembly of the League of Nations meeting in Geneva in 1929. While that work has not yet been digitized, the library has other examples of her artwork that uncompromisingly celebrated the contributions of women to culture, religion, civilization, and the betterment of society.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca and Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with funds provided by Florida International University’s Liberal Studies Program