MIAMI BEACH, FL (February 15, 2010)―Beginning February 19, 2010, The Wolfsonian–Florida International University presents Advertising for Health, an installation that explores nearly a century of advertising for medicine, pharmacy, and public health. The installation features rare advertisements, printed ephemera, and posters from a recent gift by William H. Helfand, a recognized author and print collector. Together with a selection of printed materials and objects from a rarely-exhibited segment of The Wolfsonian’s collection, these works reflect, through their design strategies, changing ideas about health in the Americas and Europe between the late nineteenth century and the Second World War. The objects on view also encourage reflection on the “pursuit of health” in the present by conveying the lively history underlying issues that remain current today.

The Wolfsonian has a particularly rich collection of books, periodicals, and ephemera about physical culture in the U.S.; publications regarding housing reform and urban planning related to health and hygiene; public health campaign materials; and personal care and hygiene objects, such as razors, massagers, and sunlamps. “Mr. Helfand’s gift significantly deepens our collection in the area of medical and pharmaceuticals advertising,” says Marianne Lamonaca, curator of the exhibition and The Wolfsonian’s associate director for curatorial affairs and education. “The installation also relates to a substantial future project, explains Lamonaca. “The Wolfsonian is in the early stages of organizing a large, traveling exhibition, Better! Cleaner! Stronger! Design and the Pursuit of Health, 1918–1945. Its focus will be on a time when European and American designers were called upon to remake the physical and visual world for the sake of healthier individuals and societies. It will explore the impact on that era’s visual and material culture of ideas about health—ideas that shaped the policies of states, that drove social movements, and that inspired visions of the future.”

In celebration of the opening of the installation, The Wolfsonian will present a collector’s talk, William H. Helfand on Good Doctors/Bad Doctors, on Sunday, February 21 at 1pm. Helfand will discuss how he became a print collector and will address visual representations of “good doctors/bad doctors.” The talk, which is free for members and students and $10 for all others, takes place at The Wolfsonian. For more information, contact 305.535.2644 or lydia@thewolf.fiu.edu. The installation Advertising for Health is organized to celebrate two milestones at Florida International University: the inaugural year of the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and The Wolfsonian’s fifteenth anniversary. “On the occasion of the museum’s fifteenth anniversary,” notes Wolfsonian director Cathy Leff, “we are recognizing the important contributions of donors to our collection. We are also showing a complementary exhibition, Bernarr Macfadden and the American Physical Culture Movement: Selections from the Gift of Robert J. Young in The Wolfsonian’s Rare Book and Special Collections Library.” The library display, curated by Francis X. Luca, Wolfsonian chief librarian and FIU adjunct professor of history, opened on February 5 and focuses on Bernarr Macfadden, a pioneer of the American physical culture movement, a body-builder, and a self-made millionaire. Macfadden used his publishing empire to distribute popular magazines and books that championed his crusade against Victorian prudery, exposed early twentieth-century medical establishment quackery, and advocated better living through a healthy diet and physical fitness.

Advertising for Health and related public programs are sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About The Wolfsonian–Florida International University
The Wolfsonian is a museum, library, and research center that uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical, and technological changes that have transformed our world. The collections comprise approximately 120,000 objects from the period of 1885 to 1945—the height of the Industrial Revolution to the end of the Second World War—in a variety of media including furniture; industrial-design objects; works in glass, ceramics, and metal; rare books; periodicals; ephemera; works on paper; paintings; textiles; and medals.

The Wolfsonian is located at 1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL. Admission is $7 for adults; $5 for seniors, students, and children age 6 -12; and free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, and children under six. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday from noon-6pm; Thursday and Friday from noon-9pm; and is closed on Wednesday. Contact us at 305.531.1001 or visit us online at www.wolfsonian.org for further information.

The Wolfsonian receives ongoing support from The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council; the William J. and Tina Rosenberg Foundation; Continental Airlines, the Official Airline of The Wolfsonian–FIU; Bacardi USA, Inc.; and Arrowood Vineyards & Winery.

###

BACK