Browse Exhibits (131 total)
Charlotte Brontë and the Problem of True Representation
An Exploration of Fact, Fiction, and the Phenomenon of the Brontë Biography
LIFE, Literature, and the Legacy of John Ames Mitchell
“The fragrance of the pines, the sighing of the wind through the canopy above, all were soothing to the senses; and yet, in a dreamy way, they stirred the imagination,” Mitchell muses in The Pines of Lory, “This was fairy land—the enchanted forest—the land of poetry and peace—of calm content, far away from common things.”
The idea that life and art and nature are inextricable from one another, an idea that permeates both the content and the physical design of The Pines of Lory, seems to be one that guided John Ames Mitchell in almost every personal and professional endeavor there is record of during his lifetime. For a man who is remembered as honest, outspoken, and unwavering in his beliefs, surprisingly, there is little documentation evidencing the details of his personal life, and his thoughts and opinions outside of his work at Life Magazine. In order to gain a fuller picture of the man behind the magazine there is much to be interpreted by reading between the lines of his life and legacy, the reverberations of which continue to lend themselves to American cultural and social life 100 years after his death.
Life Magazine, which would have been akin to today’s New Yorker,
Though Mitchell and his wife
The MAN, the MYTH, the LEGEND
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GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Maxims for Revolutionists
The Life, Literature and Legacy of Jack Kerouac
"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life."
"Brothers on the Battlefield": The Christian Brothers During the Franco-Prussian War
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), the Christian Brothers did not shy from the battlefield but aided both sides in the bloody conflict.
The Franco-Prussian War, also called the French-German War (1870-1871), resulted from a diplomatic breakdown during negotiations among the leadership of France and Prussia. In response, the Prussians published a deliberately insulting, edited version of the diplomatic exchange between the two countries in order to provoke a war. French emperor Napoleon III declared war on Prussia July 19, 1870. By September 2, 1870, Napoleon III was defeated, surrendered to the Prussians, and abdicated the throne.
The Third French Republic was formed on September 19, 1870. The citizens of the new Republic were left to fight a bloody and losing battle started by the aristocracy. The war lasted several months and included a four-month siege of Paris that finally ended in January 1871. France ultimately failed to push the Prussians out of the country. The war ended May 10, 1871 with the Prussians declaring victory, forcing France to cede eastern portions of the country to the victors.
According to their own accounts, the Brothers served as negotiators, medics for both the French and the Prussians, and advocates for the people of France. They collected money and food and they offered their houses and schools as hospitals.
It was important for the Christian Brothers to demonstrate their patriotism and charity to the public to counter anticlerical sentiment in France that had developed during the nineteenth century.
This exhibition from the Manhattan College Archives brings together artifacts and images collected by the De La Salle Brothers that demonstrated their efforts on behalf of the French people during and after the war.