A collection of Chinese Cultural Revolution posters were donated to Wesleyan’s East Asian Art & Archival Collection by Victor and Ruth Sidel in 1992. Victor W. Sidel, MD, was an American physician and was the co-founder and President of the American Public Health Association. He was also the founder and President of the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and was the Co-President of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Ruth Side was a professor of sociology at Hunter College. Ruth’s research centered around poverty and the need to develop comprehensive, universal family policy in the United States. During her career, Ruth had numerous publications about the effect of poverty on women and children.
Victor and Ruth Sidel were leaders in their fields. In 1971, both Victor and Ruth were among the first Americans to visit the People’s Republic of China. During their time in China, Victor and Ruth learned about the health care reforms that took place during the Cultural Revolution. From this experience, the Sidels emphasized the principle of putting prevention first and training community members as “barefoot doctors” to provide health care services to underprivileged areas. They also emphasized that health care should be rooted in serving the people and not in status or financial gain.
After their initial trip to China, Victor and Ruth returned to China several times. While visiting, the Sidels purchased and collected propaganda posters from the Cultural Revolution. Even though inexpensive at the time—many of the posters are printed with a small price tag—the posters are now irreplaceable and offer a window into a truly unique period of history.
Even though neither Victor nor Ruth Sidel attended Wesleyan University, they were connected through a family friend who attended Wesleyan. In 1991, the Sidels loaned six posters in their collection to Wesleyan University for an exhibit in the College of East Asian Studies Gallery. After the exhibit, the Sidels decided to donate the duplicate posters in their personal collection to the East Asian Art & Archival Collection.
After Wesleyan received the posters, they were accessioned, cataloged, stacked and interwoven with acid-free tissue, and placed in flat file storage. Stacked in the drawers, the posters had little protection from tearing, fading, or creasing. Additionally, over time paper naturally becomes more brittle, thus increasing the difficulty of handling.
Samantha Smith, Class of 2020, chose to work with the posters during the course of her senior capstone project in order to make the posters more accessible to students and faculty. In order to make the posters more accessible, Samantha completed a new set of condition reports to mark the current condition of the posters. Then, Samantha photographed and rehoused the posters into archival polyester poster sleeves that were backed with acid- and lignin-free backer board. The archival polyester poster sleeves protect the posters’ surfaces by providing a protective casing, and the backerboards provide ridged support so that the posters can be easily handled without causing creasing or tearing.
Samantha also translated and research the content of each poster. The research Samantha conducted on the collection is visible on the object pages for each poster.
Her hard work rehousing, researching, and translating the posters payed off, and the collection was used during Professor Victoria Smolkin’s class on the communist experience in the 20th century. The collection of posters were well received by both students and faculty, and later in the semester, students in several classes had requested the use of the posters as primary sources for essay assignments.
Samantha’s work with Cultural Revolution posters over the course of her capstone project not only increased their accessibility to the Wesleyan community, but also preserved this unique collection of posters so that they can be enjoyed by students, faculty, and friends of Wesleyan for years to come.
