By AMANDA CLARKE
Freelancer
Hamersly library, with help from the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Study of Political Graphics as well as Dr. Henry Hughes, an English professor at Western, and his wife, are currently displaying new exhibits on boycotts and World War I.
The exhibits are located on the second and third floors of Hamersly library. A reception was held on Wednesday, Jan. 14, in which visitors attended to view the exhibits. They had the chance to speak with others about the exhibits while enjoying provided refreshments.
The second floor displays the exhibit titled: “Boycott! The Art of Economic Activism.” It is sponsored by the Center for Study of Political Graphics and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization looking to promote peace and justice.
“I think of them as the watchdogs for global social justice,” Jerrie Parpart, the Exhibits Coordinator and Archives Assistant, said.
The exhibit features 58 posters showing boycott issues from around the world for issues such as: GMO issues, workers rights and several other international issues.
Historical and contemporary boycott movement booklets are available with pictures and information about the posters as well as information on the sponsors and their work throughout the world.
“This exhibit [on the second floor] deals with social justice and the one upstairs is World War I which also habits social implications,” Parpart said.
“They’re showing you things that are easily lost in our society.”
The third floor displays the World War I “Reverberations of the Great War” exhibit, with library of congress pictures and memorabilia from the grandfathers of
Dr. Hughes and his wife, Chloe. This display includes awards, letters and poems written both to and by soldiers, and army supplies that had actually been used in the war.
“When something is so far in the past, it’s easy to forget and we think about Iraq and Afghanistan and the horrors of war and World War I was such a tragic war and so many young people were killed,” Dr. Hughes said. “I’m really into poetry and I tried to select poems that really reflect disillusion with war. That war was a key war in breaking down the romance and the patriotism.”
Hamersly Library began to display exhibits for students in 2000, when the library was built. The exhibits are there to increase knowledge of what happens in the classroom.
“It’s a way to teach between the lines,” Parpart said. “I try to find topics that are a three to five year period and will cover multiple disciplines.”
Exhibits are suggested by faculty and artists who ask to display their work. The library, faculty, sponsors, and students arrange six different displays each year.
The exhibit featuring boycott movements will be displayed through Feb. 15, and the World War I exhibit lasts through March 20.
“I think it’s important not to forget our past and to see the impact of what it has to day and what changes can happen through them,” Parpart said.
