By Menachem Wecker
In a 1960s poster protesting the draft, Uncle Sam’s ominous hand reaches toward a pile of numbered eggs – the handled ones broken, revealing draftees rather than chicks.
The anti-war campaign is one of hundreds of objects on display in Clothing the Rebellious Soul: Revolution 1963-1973 at GW’s Luther W. Brady Art Gallery. The exhibit, which features clothing and ephemera – objects like buttons and leaflets not conventionally held to be art – fills both the gallery and the glass cases on the second and ground floors at the Media and Public Affairs Building.
The exhibit is curated by Nancy Gewirz, Mount Vernon Seminary (high school) ’54, M.F.A. ’89, who runs the Bethesda, Md.-based company Antique Textile Resource, which sells patterns to the fashion industry in New York. Ms. Gewirz, who holds a B.F.A. from American University and won a David Lloyd Kreeger award for sculpture from GW, collaborated on the exhibit with Mark Hooper, a writer, lecturer and collector who is an expert on the period addressed in the exhibit.
According to Ms. Gewirz, politicians today repeat mistakes committed by their predecessors in the 1960s and 1970s when she was growing up. “We are a country full of brilliant minds, yet we can’t seem to resolve conflicts without sending young people to war,” she says. “As September 11 has shown us, we need to be strong and we need to be committed, and, at the same time, we need to be judicious about sending our young people to war.”
There is no longer a draft in the 2000s, but Ms. Gewirz says the exhibit is important to show young people what happened about half a century ago in an era whose repercussions we are still dealing with today. She refers particularly to Vietnam, to three assassinations, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Chicago police’s use of force to stop the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
“It’s unfathomable that these things happened in this country. I think kids should be aware,” she says. “I don’t think they know anything about Vietnam.”
Lenore Miller, M.F.A. ’72, director of University art galleries and chief curator, reconnected with Ms. Gewirz recently at an antique show in the District. She was drawn to a booth at the show exhibiting 1960s clothing, and when she drew closer, she recognized Ms. Gewirz. Ms. Miller, who was previously director of GW’s Dimock Gallery, had met Ms. Gewirz when she was exhibiting her thesis work at the gallery as a master’s student, and Ms. Miller had been meaning to get back in touch. When she learned about Ms. Gewirz’s exhibit proposal, she knew it would fit perfectly at GW.
The exhibit includes vintage hippie clothing along with blown-up photographs by Elaine Mayes of the rock ‘n’ roll stars of the 1960s like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, record covers, Woodstock programs and memorabilia from the Vietnam War. GW has also added its own element to the exhibit examining some of the rebelliousness that was occurring at GW at the time.
GW senior Gabriel Seder, who is studying history and international affairs, conducted research on campus protests at GW, which were part of a country-wide movement. During the May 5, 1970, strike in support of the victims at Kent State, class attendance at GW dropped to 30 percent, and the student newspaper, the Hatchet, called the Marvin Center the “Kent Center” for weeks, Mr. Seder found.
On Oct. 1, 1968, students conducted a “sit-in” at Thurston Hall, and on April 30, 1968, about 200 students commemorated Martin Luther King Jr. with a teach-in at Monroe Hall. On April 23, 1969, 40 students occupied Maury Hall. An inscription on a soldier’s helmet in the glass cases outside the exhibit might have best summed up the protesters’ views about the war: “Draft beer not students.”
“One thing that really struck me as I went through old Hatchets was how similar they were to issues today,” Mr. Seder says. “I suppose you might conclude that despite these huge events in D.C. – the Moratorium, the 1968 riots and the so-called ‘days of rage’ --day-to-day life at GW was probably not much different than it is now.”