The late 1960s and early ’70s were a turbulent time in the United States as more Americans opposed the nation’s continued involvement in the Vietnam War. The essence of the political protest that swirled around this controversial issue is captured in the Penn State Patee Library’s poster exhibit “Up Against the Wall: Political Protest Art from the Thomas W. Benson Collection.” The exhibit will remain on display in the Diversity Studies Room, 203 Pattee Library, through Feb. 1.
According to Benson, the collection captures the intensely political climate and emerging student engagement with war, patriotism, and anti-imperialism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibit is open during standard library hours. Call 865-3063 to confirm times.
“I was teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1969-70,” Benson said. “And the posters were a part of the student protests against the expanding of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the shooting at Kent State. They were silk-screened anti-war posters and I decided to collect them. About three years ago, I donated them to the Penn State Libraries.”
Benson is the Edwin Erle Sparks professor of rhetoric in Penn State’s department of communication arts.
There are more than 100 items in the collection, including about 70 unique posters.
“After owning them for more than 40 years I felt they really ought to be with people who could take care of them. Not all the posters are in the exhibit, but the library has done a wonderful job of preserving and displaying the posters,” Benson said.
The exhibit was overseen by curator Jim Quigel.
Benson is hopeful that visitors to the exhibit will be left with a sense of what was happening in the country in those days of protest.
“At the very least, they are of historical interest,” he said. “The posters are an appeal for calmness, participation and inclusion. They call for peace. I did not come up with the title of the exhibit, but it is a pun of sorts, evoking the well-known phrase of that day, and making reference to the posters up on the wall.”
At a time of great division the political posters help to put the conflict in context.
“I think people viewing them today will find them to be directly relatable to what happened at Penn State during those years,” Benson said.
While Penn State protests against the war came later than those at Berkeley, the university community did experience a great deal of controversy and anti-war activities, Benson noted.
“Up Against the Wall: Political Protest Art from the Thomas W. Benson Collection” will be available to view through Feb. 1 in the Diversity Studies Room, 203 Pattee Library, University Park. Call 863-3063 for more information. To view the entire Thomas W. Benson Political Protest Digital Collection, visit www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/benson.html.
