A HYMN FOR THE BRAVE : the Sharps and Humanitarian Work in World War II is an exhibition featuring professional documents and personal records from the Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection and the Robert Cloutman and Elisabeth Anthony Dexter papers, on view in Brown University’s John Hay Library from September 19 – March 3, 2017.
Brown alumna Martha Dickie and her husband Waitstill Sharp conducted relief missions in war-torn Europe from 1939 to the 1950s. They worked with alumnus Robert Dexter of the American Unitarian Association to rescue nearly 300 refugees and provide aid to those living under Nazi occupation. This exhibition aligns with the release of Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War, a documentary by Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky III that tells the story of this couple’s wartime humanitarian efforts.
PROJECT PARTNERS : Brown University Library would like to thank Artemis Joukowsky III, Martha Sharp Joukowsky and the Joukowsky family for their generous support, their donation of historical materials to Special Collections, and their initiation of this project. This exhibition relates to the work of numerous institutions striving to bring the Sharps’ narrative and related histories of relief workers and refugees in World War II to light. Partners for this project include the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Andover-Harvard Theological Library.
Photo : Artemis Joukowsky III with his grandmother Martha Sharp Cogan, circa 1980s (Martha and Waitstill Sharp Collection).