United Nations

The United Nations was established in order to maintain international peace and promote cooperation in solving international economic, social, and humanitarian problems. Representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco in 1945 to draw up the United Nations Charter. The United Nations officially came into existence on October 24, 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.

The first meetings of the General Assembly and the Security Council, took place in London beginning in January 1946. Before moving to the new United Nations Headquarters building  located on international territory in New York City in 1953, the organization was based at the Sperry Gyroscope Corporation's facility in Lake Success, New York from 1946 to 1952,

The United Nations' system is based on five principal organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice. The first four organs are at  the United Nations headquarters in New York. (The International Court of Justice is located in The Hague).

The views on my postcards are 50+ years old. The postcard above has a view of the United Nations Headquarters in New York from across the East River.

 

The postcard of the mural by Jose Vela Zanetti ''Mankind's Struggle for a Lasting Peace'' at the United Nations headquarters is composed of three panels which fold for mailing. It is the width of 3 postcards (16-1/2") when open.  The United Nations website describes it as follows:

The huge mural - 20 yards long and nearly four yards high - depicts mankind’s struggle for a lasting peace, beginning with the destruction of a family and ending with the resurrection, showing a bright-eyed child looking toward a generation of peace. Concentration camps, bombings and all the agony of modern war are symbolized in the painting, in the centre of which a gigantic four-armed figure is implanting the emblem of the United Nations, as mankind reconstructs a war-torn world.

This seemed like a good subject for trying out the MapLib widget as described by Mister Mike in last week's Sepia Saturday post: http://temposenzatempo.blogspot.com/2013/03/adolphe-dumont-and-chicago-philharmonic.html .

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