About This Exhibit

This permanent online exhibit was collaboratively produced with a loan exhibition of the University of Chicago's posters on display at the Indiana University Art Museum from October 15 to December 18, 2011. The posters in the Bloomington exhibition were generously lent by the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library.

The Bloomington exhibition was made possible in part by funding from the Thomas T. Solley Endowed Fund for the Pamela Buell Curator of Asian Art, Themester 2011, IU Art Museum ARC Fund, and The Center for the Study of the Middle East. The exhibition was guest curated by Professor Christiane Gruber, University of Michigan, and her doctoral student Elizabeth Rauh. The organizing curator was Judy Stubbs, the IU Art Museum's Pamela Buell Curator of Asian Art.

The website was produced and designed by Elisabeth M. Long, co-director of the University of Chicago's Digital Library Development Center, and Brad Busenius, web and graphic design specialist.

The collection of Iranian revolutionary and wartime posters are held in the University of Chicago's Special Collections Research Center. After the 1979 Revolution, the posters were acquired by Dr. Paul Sprachman, then Persian bibliographer at the University of Chicago. Dr. Sprachman acquired the posters in 1981-1982 with Title IIC funding for the University of Chicago Library's acquisition program for Persian materials. Most of the Iranian posters held in the University of Chicago's collection were bought in Istanbul and Damascus. Others were purchased in London, Paris, Istanbul, Damascus, and various other places in Pakistan and India.

It is our understanding that the posters in this exhibit are not protected under U.S. copyright law.  To learn more about these and other posters held in the collection or to obtain information on ordering publication-quality images, please visit the Guide to the Middle Eastern Posters Collection 1970s-1990s.

Acknowledgements

Many colleagues at Indiana University and the University of Chicago made this project possible. Thanks go to Alice Schreyer of the Special Collections Research Center for her endless support and facilitation of the project, and for granting us hands-on access to the posters. Thank you also to Elisabeth Long, for her generous assistance in producing the website and her fastidious attention to detail, and to Brad Busenius for his creativity in translating the brochure design to the website.

I am indebted to the IU Art Museum staff for making this project possible. I would like to thank Doug Sanders of the Indiana University Libraries for generously contributing his skill and knowledge in paper conservation to this project. For preparing, mounting, and framing the posters for the exhibition, I wish to thank Jeanne Leimkuhler and Ellen Starr Lyon. Thanks to Brian Garvey and Linda Baden for designing and editing a beautifully produced brochure. I wish to thank Anna Simon and Aleah Holland for editing the brochure, labels, and didactics for the exhibition. I offer a warm thank you to Judy Stubbs for her tireless efforts, support, and patience, especially while guiding me through producing the exhibition materials and texts.

I also would like to thank Nasser Palangi for lending his support to the project and for providing me with needed information. In addition, I would like to thank Bart Pushaw for his enthusiastic encouragement and assistance, and Bernard Kincius for his personal support.

Last but not least, I wish to thank my academic advisor, Christiane Gruber, for allowing me to participate in this project. Her research and article ("Media/ting Conflict: Iranian Posters of the Iran-Iraq War") led to our exhibition's eventual fruition. I have been privileged to be able to work with these posters and to have played an active role in this exhibition project. For providing me invaluable assistance and feedback on all written materials, for fielding many late night e-mail queries, and for her generous support, I offer my sincerest thanks to Christiane Gruber.

Elizabeth Rauh
Ph.D. student
History of Art
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
erauh@umich.edu