University of Pittsburgh Library System

The purpose of the Archival Scholars Research Project is to allow students to find an interest in a document or set of documents from theArchives and Special Collections department of the University of Pittsburgh and engage in archival practices to then present a project. I chose to develop an analysis of the intersection between archival practice, historical research, and curatorial exhibiting. The database of archives is vast allowing students to explore a multitude of documents and develop pathways to a whole plethora of projects. The archival practice began with looking through the catalog of the University of Pittsburgh. I have always had a personal interest in the messages that visual art can convey. Calling to question the subjectivity of art refers to how an individual can respond to artwork in different ways even though the material piece in front of them stays the same. However, political art has a unique goal of trying to express very straightforward messages to either influence or change an individual’s political ideology. The Communist Propaganda from the archives of Adolphe Edward Forbes presented a large collection of documents from the 1930s through the 1950s. The mayhem of social unrest, war, and civil injustices of this time resulted in the abundance of visual art creation to express the tension between the working class and those oppressed. This archive consisted of the personal collection from Adolph Edward Forbes, a Pittsburgh native, who oversaw the distribution of communist propaganda around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and other areas of the United States.