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During
the Spanish Civil
War (1936-1939)
children were
evacuated from
the war zones
to colonies in
the war-free areas
of Spain and in
the south of France.
Drawings by these
children were
collected from
throughout Spain
in a concerted
effort of the
Spanish Board
of Education and
the Carnegie Institute
of Spain. A large
group was assembled
by Joseph A. Weissberger
in early 1938
and brought to
the United States
on behalf of the
Spanish Child
Welfare Association
for the American
Friends Service
Committee. They
were used by the
Friends as a means
to publicize the
plight of the
children and collect
funds for more
evacuations and
assistance to
the already established
colonies. Over
850 of these drawings
have been identified
in a variety of
locations. The
Friends published
sixty of them
with a prologue
by Aldous Huxley
under the title
And they still
draw pictures!
Several printings
were sold for
$1.00 each for
the same fund
The
majority of the
drawings known
today (609) have
been collected
by the University
of California
at San Diego and
form part of the
Southworth collection
in their Mandeville
Special Collections
(available on
the Web at: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/tsdp/).
Harvard University
holds another
17, and 15-20
others are in
the Philadelphia
headquarters of
the American Friends
Service Committee.
Those
presented here
consist of a collection
of 153 made by
children aged
7 to 14. They
were willed to
the Department
of Art History
and Archaeology
of Columbia University
by Martin Vogel.
Sadly very little
is known about
this man, other
than he was a
lawyer, who died
on May 20, 1938
at the age of
59. He made several
bequests to Columbia
University in
a will dated March
16, 1938. From
the date of this
will and of his
death, it seems
certain that the
drawings he purchased
were those exhibited
at Lord &
Taylor?s in February
1938. His name,
however, does
not appear among
the patrons of
the exhibition.
In
1977, the late
Professor George
Collins discovered
these drawings
upon examination
of some large
boxes designed
to resemble folio
books that were
kept in the slide
library of the
Department of
Art History. He
had them transferred
to the Avery Architectural
and Fine Arts
Library, where
they reside.
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