An Exhibit From the Labadie Collection, University of Michigan Library
September 15-December 19, 2008

Now on display in the Gallery (Room 100), Hatcher Graduate Library

1968.... Peggy Fleming won an Olympic gold medal in Grenoble, France, Apollo 8 carried the first human beings into orbit to see the dark side of the moon and all of planet Earth, Hawaii Five-O debuted on television, and The Producers and Funny Girl ran in theatres. At the same time, the Vietnam War raged on, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were murdered, and protest seethed on university campuses with an increasing sympathy among mainstream Americans.

In this 40th anniversary year of 1968, the University of Michigan Library presents 'The Whole World Was Watching: Protest and Revolution in 1968, Selections from the Labadie Collection, University of Michigan Library.' This exhibit provides a snapshot of a complex and pivotal year in American history highlighting protests against the Vietnam War and the draft, the highly fractured Presidential election and the violence that erupted outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago against anti-war demonstrators, and the activities of student and other protest groups such as the Ann Arbor-founded Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, the White Panthers, and the Yippies. The exhibit notes the women's movement and international matters such as Prague Spring and the May Paris uprisings.

Julie Herrada, curator for the Labadie Collection organized the show. The Labadie Collection was established in 1911 when Joseph Labadie, a popular Detroit anarchist, donated his library to the University of Michigan. Today it includes a great variety of social protest literature together with political views from both the extreme left and the extreme right from all over the world.

A related display of original record albums and political buttons from the University of Michigan's Special Collections Library is on view in the Special Collections Exhibit Room located on the seventh floor of the Hatcher Graduate Library.

On October 21 at 5:30 pm in the Gallery, Curator Julie Herrada will give an informal tour of the exhibit.

On November 13th at 4 pm in the Gallery, the Library will host a discussion panel in association with this exhibit moderated by University Librarian Paul Courant. A performance by 60's legend Country Joe McDonald will follow at 8 pm. Updated information will be available on our website: www.lib.umich.edu.

The exhibit was organized by the University of Michigan Library with support from the Ginsberg Center, University of Michigan; Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan; Department of History, University of Michigan; the Program in American Culture, University of Michigan; and Arts at Michigan.