Last Updated on November 11, 2018 by cassnetwork
LOGANSPORT — A local memorial of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms paintings will be displayed permanently in the Logansport City Building.
Rockwell, a World War I veteran, drew the four portraits which served as covers for editions of The Saturday Evening Post. A touring display of the portraits during World War II raised the equivalent of $1.8 billion for the U.S. War Bond effort. Rockwell approached editors at the Post with the idea after he offered them to the United States Government.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Four Freedoms, which are part of a traveling art exhibition currently in Detroit. Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11.
The annual Veterans Day Observance will be dedicated during the 11 a.m. ceremony at the City Building.
The public is invited to see the exhibit and a special encore presentation of the Cass County Historical Society’s World War I exhibit featuring every soldier from that war who lived in the county and their service. The exhibits will be in the city council chambers and are free to the public following the Veterans Day Parade.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Veterans Day Parade begins at 10 a.m. at 4th and Broadway, near the Cass County Govenrment Building).
Friday morning, Mayor Dave Kitchell spoke about the exhibit to students at Landis Elementary School. He cited teacher Greg Dominick, the public address announcer for Logansport High School athletic events in the Berry Bowl, for recognizing the Four Freedoms as part of every pre-game flag ceremony.
The freedoms identified by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941 are the Freedom of Speech, the Freedom of Fear, the Freedom from Want and the Freedom of Religion. They were the inspiration for the Norman Rockwell portraits that graced the covers of the Saturday Evening Post.
Of the four stories accompanying each of the covers, one was written by Indianapolis native Booth Tarkington, who was considered the most famous American author of his time. Tarkington wrote an essay on Freedom of Speech. The Freedom of Speech portrait by Rockwell had another Indiana touch to it. The cheekbones of the man depicted were drawn to be similar to Abraham Lincoln’s.
SOURCE: News release from Logansport Mayor Dave Kitchell