In honor of a native Utahn who became one of the most renowned women in China, the Special Collections Department at Brigham Young University will present a "Helen Foster Snow" exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library Special Collections exhibit hall opening Friday (Oct. 13). Admission is free.
In connection with the exhibition, the Special Collections Department will also host the "Helen Foster Snow: Witness to Revolution" Symposium Thursday and Friday (Oct. 26-27) in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium. The symposium will begin Thursday at 8:30 a.m. and continue until 5:30 p.m. It will be held from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Friday.
"Helen Foster Snow, a native of Cedar City, was the most recognized Utahn in 20th Century China," said Harvard Heath, curator of 20th century Mormon Western history. "She was involved as an observer and commentator on the political and social changes in China in the 1930s."
The exhibition contains a representative sampling of the collection of her photographs, manuscripts and artifacts. Snow's wedding kimono and leopard skin coat along with one-of-a-kind pictures of Chairman Mao, former communist leader of the People's Republic of China, and other prominent Chinese leaders will also be on display.
At her death in 1997, a memorial in the Great Hall of the People in China was created in her honor. Several hospitals and schools throughout China are named in recognition of her contributions.
Snow was a witness and a recorder to many political changes. Her photographs and journals are some of the only histories of 1930s China in existence.
The symposium will open Thursday (Oct. 26) with the speech "China in the American Mind" by Jon Davidann from Hawaii Pacific University.
The Thursday symposium will also contain the documentary film "Helen Foster Snow: Witness to Revolution," speeches about student protests and the Communist movement and lectures regarding perspectives on Helen Foster Snow.
Friday's symposium will begin with "Gung Ho," a talk by Gary Hansen from Utah State University. The symposium will include lectures on the Gung Ho movement, politics of American non-governmental aid to China, women involved with Chinese industrial cooperative organizations and more.
The documentary film will also be shown at the Friday symposium beginning at 4 p.m.
For more information or a symposium program, please call (801) 422-6370.
