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Catalogue information
LastDodo number
5664271
Area
Drawings / paintings
Title
The gates swing open - even as for our forefathers
Artist
Art object
Art Movement / style
Genre
Material
Technique used
Colouring
Dimensions
38 x 28 cm
Series / hero
Collection / set
Number
Addition to number
Year
1939
Country
Language
Details
Original editorial cartoon on card in pen, ink and crayon, 1939, syndicated to a number of newspapers, shows ‘Miss Columbia’ welcoming with open arms ‘10,000 persecuted child refugees’ from Europe, embracing ‘our heritage as a haven for the oppressed’ as it had done in previous chapters of its history between 1620-1670 and 1850-1900. On April 23, 1939 The Washington Post ran a story under the headline: “Dorothy Thompson Pleads for Child Exiles, Asks US Haven for 20,000 ‘with no future’”. An outspoken journalist and the first American woman to head a foreign news bureau, Thompson testified before the Senate in favour of a bipartisan proposal championed by the Democrat Senator Robert F. Wagner, and the Republican Edith Nourse Rogers. The plan would have allowed for annual admission of 10,000 children, in addition to the German quota already allowed, during a two-year period. Opponents believed however that the bill was the first move, exploiting sympathy for refugees, toward breaking down immigration law restrictions. The Wagner-Rogers bill was defeated in committee. The cartoonist seems to have jumped the gun here, perhaps mistakenly assuming there was a very good prospect of the Bill being passed into law. Card size 38 x 28 cm (15 x 11 inch), image size 32 x 26 cm, signed lower right with nine zeros as underline. Caption in pencil in upper border, in very good condition.