What do Owen Young, Mohammed Massadegh, Harlow Herbert Curtice, Peter Ueberroth and Franklin D. Roosevelt have in common? They’ve all been recognized as TIME magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
For 75 years, the magazine has chronicled the essence of the times with its annual TIME magazine “Person of the Year” issue. Chicagoans will have an opportunity to examine history through the stories of those who’ve shaped it when “TIME Person of the Year at 75” comes to the Chicago Historical Society, Clark St. and North Ave., through Jan. 5.
Like so many great traditions, TIME’s “Person of the Year” was born by accident. In December 1927, editors were casting about for a newsworthy lead story when they realized that Charles Lindbergh, who’d completed his historic 33 1/2-hour flight from New York to Paris that year, had never been featured on the cover. So, they named him TIME’s “Man of the Year,” and the rest is history.
Since then, TIME has featured people from all walks of life, including business giants, political leaders and scientific pioneers, as well as social trends and inventions. Editors base their selection on whomever—or whatever—”most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse.”
TIME created the traveling exhibition to celebrate the tradition’s 75th anniversary. The exhibition includes magazine covers and commentary from both the original issue of TIME and from a contemporary perspective; historic photographs, original artifacts and artwork that capture the spirit of various eras; and a 10-minute video about the selection process, featuring interviews with former and current managing editors.
In case you were wondering—Owen Young was the 1929 TIME Man of the Year, recognized as the brilliant media titan who helped give birth to the radio age. Young was the chairman of the board of both General Electric and RCA and the U.S. representative to, and chairman of, the Second Reparations Conference in Paris in 1929.
Mohammed Mossadegh, the Premier of Iran, was Man of the Year 1951. He took control of Iran after the assassination of pro-Western premier Ali Razmara, nationalized Iran’s old industry and raised a defiant challenge to the West.
General Motors president Harlow Herbert Curtice was elected in 1955 as an acknowledgment of the power of American capitalism to shape history during the Cold War. Peter Ueberroth should be known to any sports fan —he was selected for the 1984 TIME Man of the Year because he organized the most financially successful Olympic Games to date. Franklin Delano Roosevelt? He’s the only person to be named TIME Man of the Year three times, in 1932, 1934, and 1941.
The 2002 TIME Person of the Year will be announced at the end of December; the image of that honoree will be added to the exhibition at the CHS.
For more information, call CHS at (312) 642-4600 or visit www.chicagohistory.org.
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