NLM to Open Photographic Tribute to "Nelson Mandela: Man of the People"

To celebrate African American History Month, 2009, the National Library of Medicine will open "Nelson Mandela: Man of the People," an extraordinary photographic tribute to the life and work of South Africa's first democratically elected President. The exhibition features the work of the critically acclaimed photographer, Dr. Peter Magubane, and is on loan from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

The public is invited to the exhibition opening, sponsored by the NLM Diversity Council and the NLM Office of the Director, in the Lister Hill Center lobby on Thursday, February 5th at 2:00 p.m. The featured speaker will be Mr. Tebogo Kola, First Secretary of Public Diplomacy, Embassy of the Republic of South Africa. Light refreshments will be served.

Dr. Magubane's photography chronicles the career of Nelson Mandela and the turbulent times in which he lived. Beginning in the mid 1950s, when Mandela was a member of the ANC Youth League, the exhibit features over 100 photographs and extends through the death of his son Makgatho in 2005. Mandela was a passionate leader of the anti-apartheid movement. For years, from 1948-1990, South Africa was torn apart by apartheid, or separateness, a legally enforced policy of racial segregation. The exhibition captures Mandela at the heart of this struggle for equality, portraying him as a political activist, prisoner, family man, Nobel laureate, President, and statesman. Highlights include photographs from Mandela's anti-apartheid defiance campaign and treason trials, graphic images of uprisings and activism, the iconic Time magazine spread of Mandela as a free man, pictures with President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush, and Mandela casting his historic vote in South Africa's first democratic elections on April 27, 1994 in Inanda, Kwazulu Natal. The exhibition is an extraordinary tribute to the life and times of one of the 20th century's most historic freedom fighters.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research unit of the New York Public Library, is the largest repository for cultural items commemorating the African-American experience in the U.S. It also serves as a cultural center, hosting performances, programs, and public forums for the study and interpretation of African-American history and culture.

The exhibition is on display the month of February in the lobby of the Library's Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (Building 38A on the campus of the National Institutes of Health).

Note to teachers and administrators:

To arrange for a tour of the exhibition, please call Mr. David Nash, National Library of Medicine. 301-496-1046.

Last reviewed: 05 February 2009
Last updated: 05 February 2009
First published: 05 February 2009
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