Explorations The Stuff of World War II Curators shape a modern museum of history. by Nell Porter Brown

uring a field trip to the Mu- Clockwise from top: a Sherman tank seum of World War II in Natick, dominates the Massachusetts, a burly high- “America Enters school junior stopped at the the War” exhibit; a D German doll’s belt glass case holding Adolf Hitler’s personal buckle sports a swastika; British effects: pills, powders, and ointments from propaganda targeting women; his medicine cabinet; a monogrammed sil- Rendell, Carter, and Heywood; ver hand-mirror; and a leather mustache- flags and other artifacts from trainer, worn at night to keep stray hairs the Pacific theater in line. ing off Route 9, behind a Dick’s “He said, ‘Ah, I get it now!’” reports di- Sporting Goods. It holds the rector of education Marshall W. Carter, most comprehensive collection Ed.M. ’97. The student had connected the of World War II artifacts in the “personal vanity and megalomania with the world. “Other places will have dictator.” It’s just this sort of insight, Carter a complete set of guns, or of believes, that the museum—especially in uniforms,” says Carter, or focus its planned expansion—should induce. on one nation’s involvement, or “The opportunity here,” he explains, “is to historic events, such as the Ho- understand that individuals in history had locaust. “But what we have is temperaments and agency that were very the most global collection—ma- complex, and that those traits ended up af- terial from every theater, from documents and objects are on display, in fecting millions.” battlefronts, and home fronts, and no one mind-boggling breadth: from a draft of the The museum is a plain, low-slung build- else has attempted to do that.” Some 8,000 1938 Munich Agreement (with penciled

Photographs courtesy of the Museum of World War II Harvard Magazine 12G Harvard Squared marginalia by Hitler and Neville Chamber- Samples of lain) and a complete set of plans for D-Day Hitler’s art supplies and (as well as a map with original notations watercolor on landings and units), to explosives dis- works. Rendell guised as lumps of coal, German enigma says, “He machines, a French sewing kit used to rarely painted people.” relay messages for the Resistance, and the bronze bust of Hitler that General George have died were saved and went home.” war. “In the 1940s I remember neighbors and S. Patton used as a doorstop. That mobile hospital will likely be set up friends of my parents coming back, mostly Another half-million items are in stor- in the museum’s pending reincarnation as medics from the Pacific, and talking about age, including the latest acquisition, the a two-story, 62,000-square-foot structure the horrors,” he says, “but by the 1950s ev- most complete known mobile auxiliary (six times its current size) slated to be eryone was talking about the glories of war; surgical hospital—a 50-foot canvas tent, built and fully open to the public within no one could afford to remember the horrors two operating tables, anesthesia equip- three years. because they were too devastating. I was ment, thousands of instruments. “What’s struck by this and concerned, even though amazing about it is the atmosphere it cre- Kenneth W. Rendell, who built his ca- I was just a kid.” His goal in amassing the ates,” says Carter. “People entered that reer as a dealer in historic documents, be- ephemera, then and now, is to “save the re- tent hanging on to life. And because of the gan the collection at age 16. Born in 1943, ality of the war, which reflects the very per- innovation of the MASH, which was new the Somerville native was unusually sensi- sonal and complex causes and consequenc- to World War II, many people who would tive to shifting cultural perceptions of the es, which were horrible—for everyone.”

CURIOSITIES: empowerment, and play,” per exhibit notes from the original show organized by Lisa Small at the Brooklyn Museum last year. orn

Not Made for Walkin’ Take Walter Steiger’s fetishistic “Unicorn Tayss.” Leopard- h print vamps and ankle straps top six-inch curved stiletto heels, Less a fête for the feet than a feast for the eyes, much of the à la golden horns. Rem D. Koolhaas’s “Eamz” capture the in- haute couture on display in Killer Heels: The Art of the dustrial chic of mid-century designers Charles and Ray Eames: High-Heeled at the Currier Museum is “barely wearable,” fire-engine red flats that appear hoisted by a metallic lever at Zucker Jay ph by admits curator Samantha Cataldo. “Any woman who has put her the heel. Nicholas Kirkwood’s suede “Pumps,” encrusted with otogra foot in a non-sensible shoe knows they are not comfortable.” Swarovski crystals in a floral pattern, lack any utility. h Instead, the 150 range from eighteenth-century European Some 50 examples on display are historic, such as satin-weave- embroidered precursors of the “pump” to Dutch designer Iris embroidered silk Manchu-era platforms, Chinese shoes for bound van Herpen’s mounds of tangled black strands, which resemble feet, and traditional wooden Japanese from the 1800s. They the roots in a mangrove point to the Eastern origins of high heels. (Shoes have always swap, and were pro- walked the line “between form and function,” Cataldo says.) duced by a 3-D printer. Stilted bath in the Ottoman Empire kept feet dry, and All are presented as heeled equestrian Persian footwear kept riders firmly in stirrups, courtesy steiger,rt; of walter P design objects akin to but both soon evolved as fashion styles that represented physical

titled sculpture, and as status, beauty, and even worldly power. useum of A ia M

“layered cultural sym- Fast-forward to the twentieth century and Roger Vivier and ph bols in narratives of at- Salvatore Ferragamo, the designers most often credited with “in- iladel traction, transformation, venting” the . To create the blade they adapted ex- h At left: “Unicorn Tayss,” truded steel, Cataldo explains, a material also on the rise in anada; P Walter Steiger, spring 2013; transforming the world of architecture and the urban built Casuccio e Scalera per Loris landscape, largely in the form of skyscrapers. “That shoe Azzaro, 1974-79 (below); and gingham platform shoes, was really when the high heel became a sex symbol,” she

Vivienne Westwood, 1993 adds. Wearing them “changes our whole posture…pushing useum, T oronto, C

certain parts of the body out and other parts in.” However oe M glamorous “killer heels” can be, they do have a polarizing ata Sh ata effect. “For some people, putting heels on makes them feel

taller and more confident and offers a sense of authority,” ©2014 B t: Cataldo notes. “For others, they symbolize objectification h and constricting standards Currier Museum of Art of beauty. Sometimes, too, Manchester, New Hampshire www.currier.org people just find them erotic.” February 6-May 15 vn.p.b. lockwise from lower rig C

12H March - April 2016 Harvard Squared

By 1999, his private collection had been torian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D. ’68, Last fall, Rendell and his wife and busi- consolidated at the Natick facility, but was and the director of the Churchill Museum ness partner, Shirley McNerney Rendell, open just to friends, scholars, war veterans and Cabinet War Rooms in London, Phil once a local television news reporter, hired and their families, and military person- Reed.) The nonprofit museum was incor- professional senior staff: Carter, formerly nel. (Longtime trustees include retired porated in 2011, when it started admitting the K-8 principal of Milton Academy, and four-star general George W. Casey Jr., his- members of the public by appointment. Samantha Heywood, who left the Imperial War Museums to become the founding director and direc- All in a Day: Woolapalooza tor of exhibits. The museum is expected to stay open through- The 206-acre Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln out construction, which could is Mass Audubon’s only working farm-cum-educational cen- begin as early as next spring; ter. Staff members tend livestock and bountiful vegetable visit museumofworldwarii.org/ and flower crops while safeguarding meadow, woodland, visit.html or e-mail museu- and pond habitats, and providing refuge for injured or or- [email protected] to phaned wildlife—turkey vultures, red-tailed hawks, barred make an appointment. owls, a great horned owl, pheasants, and a fisher. “Ms. G,” Just what shape the new the Commonwealth’s official state groundhog, also resides museum’s content, design, and on site, but is generally not on public view. narrative structures will The farm’s annual Woolapalooza festival on take is still a matter for March 26 supports these efforts to highlight the curatorial interpretation. interconnection among animals, people, and the Right now, items are dis- natural world. Twenty-six ewes will be freed played chronologically in from their winter coats, some just weeks after some two dozen areas— giving birth. (Seventeen appeared to be expect- from “Germany in the ing at press time.) The rest of the celebratory 1920s” to “War Trials.” day is filled with herding-dog demonstrations The white walls are and farm-life and arts activities. Artisans also largely covered by inge- demonstrate how raw wool is washed, card- nious and often vitriolic ed, spun, and eventually turned into sweaters. propaganda posters pro- “Many people think of farms as being active only when Scenes from an early duced by all the combatants; the rooms are everything is green and growing,” sanctuary director Re- spring festival at simply lit. The dearth of dramatic display Drumlin Farm in nata Pomponi says, “but there are exciting things going on Lincoln, Massachusetts. staging and what curators call “didactics” all year round in nature. One of the important ways New See new lambs, try out (explanatory texts that guide experience) England farmers use the winter is the arts of spinning and allows visitors freedom to think about and weaving, and witness Mass Audubon’s Drumlin for other ‘crops’ like maple syr- absorb the staggering volume of materials the annual rite of Farm Wildlife Sanctuary up and products like wool.” At sheep-shearing. at their own pace and psychological ca- www.massaudubon.org/ get-outdoors/wildlife- Woolapalooza, visitors can buy pacity. Three hours is recommended for a sanctuaries/drumlin-farm farm-tapped syrup, along with a lunch of farm produce first-time visit. March 26, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. and meat. All the barns will be open, as well as the four How to retain “the intimacy of the objects miles of walking trails (weather permitting), because and documents,” given a much bigger space by late March, as Pomponi notes, “People are really and crowds, “is one of the challenges,” notes anctuary ready to get outside again after a cold, long winter.” Heywood. The greater creative and intellec-

For those who shun crowds (and Woolapalooza ildlife S tual puzzle, though, is figuring out how the has drawn thousands of visitors in the past), Drumlin complex scope of World War II will be con- arm W Farm is also open daily. Classes and events include ceptualized and tangibly portrayed. What

workshops on fermenting foods, making cheese, and rumlin F could, or should, be taught? What is most running a chicken coop; night walks in search of owls; relevant to a wide-ranging contemporary exploring the biological life of small ponds, and the audience, especially to young people, and

fundamentals of Northeastern birding. vn.p.b. courtesy of D what might the war mean to them in the future? For Carter, the museum’s educa- tional power lies precisely in that personal contact and potential for connection with

12J March - April 2016 Harvard Squared the primary materials of history, including apparent detritus like the bit of tickertape reading, “THE WAR IS OVER.” As the liv- ing memory of the war dims, he knows, it With sweeping ocean views from is the ephemera that keep history, and its multiple levels, this 13-room lessons, alive. And so the museum, atypi- residence is among the most cally, allows students and teachers to significant homes on the North Shore. Meticulously renovated to touch objects: to feel “a soldier’s backpack, maximize the pleasure of living in one the heft of a rifle, or run their fingers along of New England’s finest seaside the scarred grooves of a Sherman tank hit communities, the property has an by fire, or look through…binoculars that understated grandeur that invites were on the deck of the USS Arizona at carefree living amid luxurious interiors and constant views of sea Pearl Harbor.” He has already begun build- and sky. ing the educational programs, and expects “Bass Rock” to guide more than 1,500 students through Gloucester - $3,600,000 the collection before June. Even the handwritten documents un- der glass convey the human touch, he adds, “with the ink and the loops of the cursive letters…and the scratch outs and amendments.” Of the museum’s trove of personal journals, notes, and manuscripts, Manchester- $2,249,000 Prides Crossing - $949,000 Beverly -$4,500,000 Dwight D. Eisenhower’s letters to his wife, Mamie, are especially emotional, Representing the Amanda Armstrong Senior Global Real Estate Advisor given common perceptions of the man as North Shore’s the cool-headed supreme commander of c 978.879.6322 finest homes AmandaArmstrong.net the allied forces in Europe. “It is a terribly [email protected] sad business to tot up the casualties each Each office independently owned and operated day,” he wrote on April 16, 1944. “Moth- ers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, and friends must have a difficult time preserv- ing any comforting philosophy…War de- mands great toughness of fibre—not only in the soldiers that must endure, but in the home that must sacrifice their best.” By revealing the multidimensionality and vulnerabilities of great leaders, Carter hopes that students will more readily ex- plore their own characters—and act on 21st- their capacities for empathy, bravery, and even heroism. Foundation (ARS), / Artists Rights Society New York. the Moon) , 1937–38. © The Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning,Cow Jumps Over (The Untitled Century Heywood believes war is not inevitable: “It happens because men and women make choices,” she asserts. “The majority of us get along in life without conflict at every turn, and ‘peace’ is the norm for most of us on the planet.” But she also acknowl- edges that wars will “probably always hap- pen,” and therefore any serious war mu- seum should address “why and how did wars happen, and how and why can they be avoided?” Laboratory To that point, the museum’s newest ex- hibit, on anti-Semitism between 1919 and 32 Quincy Street 1939, opening April 8 at the New-York His- Cambridge, MA for the Arts torical Society, illustrates the incremental harvardartmuseums.org rise of prejudicial hatred. Rare documents

Harvard Magazine 12K Harvard Squared

are highlighted, but so are items like pamphlets, shop signs, ash- trays, and post- cards that Hey- wood says “helped ‘normalize’ anti- Semitism in Ger- man society.” To create the show, she spent months culling through the archives. “A de- pressing task,” she adds. “But enabling people today to see material like this, knowing what it Atlifecare Brookhaven living is as good as it looks. led to during the war, may lead to Brookhaven at Lexington offers an abundance of opportunities for them think afresh intellectual growth, artistic expression and personal wellness. Our residents about discrimina- share your commitment to live a vibrant lifestyle in a lovely community. tion, or about poli- Call today to set up an appointment for a tour! tics today.” A Full-Service Lifecare Retirement Community Rendell wants www.brookhavenatlexington.org the museum to re- (781) 863-9660 • (800) 283-1114 flect the continu- ing “relevance of A French wedding this period, 1920- dress made from an American reserve 1945.” On the do- parachute; binoculars Leadership & Team Building Programs mestic front, he salvaged from the deck notes parallels be- of the USS Arizona designed for your organization! tween the political mood of 1920s Germany and the “stagger- ing number of disaffected Americans…we have people who are broken and humili- “We learned a lot about ourselves and our team. ated, who don’t have jobs, and there’s no We learned about leadership skills and ultimately sense of [positive] nationalism,” he says. “And that is so dangerous.” communicating together.” In his view, the nation’s current politi- cal divisiveness and dysfunction recall the - Matt Linblad, Boston Bruins Player Development Camp gridlock evident in 1940 in Washington, D.C., when President Franklin Roosevelt was “stuck between the isolationists and the interventionists.” Decisive action occurred only after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and after Hitler and his follow- ers had already wrought unprecedented destruction. “I get really irritated when people talk about how we won the war, when more than 400,000 American sol- diers died,” he says. “That’s not winning. We didn’t lose as badly as others—but no- body wins war. And the more the museum THOMPSON ISLAND (617) 830-5114 OUTWARD BOUND can make people aware of that—of the EDUCAPROFESSIONALTION CENTER [email protected] realities of war, of the very serious conse- Boston Harbor Islands www.thompsonisland.org quences—the better.”

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