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The National Gallery of Art opened to the public in March 1941 on the eve of World War II. Thinking of the battles already being fought in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his dedication speech: "To accept this work today is to assert the purpose of the people of America--that the freedom of the human spirit and human mind which has produced the world's great art . . . shall not be utterly destroyed." Listen to an excerpt from Roosevelt's speech (Download RealPlayer) Read the text from the speech Throughout the war the National Gallery of Art was inspired by the conviction that the great art within its walls represented the highest values for which the nation was fighting. Approximately one quarter of the museum's employees joined the armed forces; in their absence, the remaining staff set about protecting the Gallery's artworks and supporting the war effort on the home front. |
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"A tribute to the inherent love of the beautiful and the good in man...." M. Avignon Jr., United States Merchant Marine, San Francisco, California, February 7, 1945 |
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Except for the small group of evacuated artworks, the museum's collection was on view throughout the conflict, augmented by paintings and drawings from French and Belgian collections that had been traveling in the Americas when war broke out. After the war, all of the safeguarded works were returned to their owners. Popular temporary exhibitions of war posters and military scenes were presented in galleries on the ground floor. Exhibitions at the Gallery in the 1940s |
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