Nelson Mandela Resource Guide: Art and Artifacts Division

Contains 10 woodcuts signed by Ilse Schreiber, a political artist. She was born in Germany studying at the University of Marburg. She moved to the United States and went to Purchase College, SUNY specifically to study woodcuts and the art of the book. She uses paintings, installations, woodcuts, and painted books to express her anguish over political and social issues. She worked with numerous poets and musicians, including Dennis Brutus.

Dennis Brutus was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia in 1924, but grew up in Port Elizabeth. He graduated from the University of Fort Hare with distinction in English. In 1961 he was banned from teaching, writing, speaking in public and attending social or political meetings under the Suppression of Communism Act. Brutus went to trial and received 18 months hard labor for breaking his ban. Some of his sentences were spent on Robben Island where he was placed in a cell was next to Nelson Mandela.

The collection consists of posters, produced during the 1970s and 1980s, representing the movement to end the political system of apartheid in the Republic of South Africa. Posters contain messages opposing apartheid and calling for civil rights for black South Africans; demanding freedom for South African political prisoners including African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela; urging boycotts of industries doing business in South Africa, specifically the Shell Oil Company; representing support from international anti-apartheid groups; and calling for unity between the ANC and the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO)

Posters manufactured between 1970 and 1991 concerning the Republic of South Africa. Posters are mostly political in nature, calling for an end to apartheid and the freeing of political prisoners. The posters were manufactured in Great Britain, France, Sweden, the United States and other locations by a variety of groups including the London and Paris Anti-Apartheid Movements, the United Nations Association of Sweden, the Organization of African Unity, the African National Congress, the United Nations and various anti-apartheid student movements (including one from Czechoslovakia and Sweden). Posters include anti-apartheid messages, many with quotes from movement leaders; copies of the Freedom Charter; announcements calling for sanctions; fundraisers for the ANC; posters manufactured for Mandela's trip to New York City in 1990; many have images of Nelson Mandela. Posters are in English, French and Swedish.