This post has nothing really to do with online marketing or any of my usual topics here on the blog. It's more of an appeal for answers to something that has intrigued me for many years.
In June 1985 I was working at the Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery and Museums in Brighton, and one of my jobs as a humble office clerk was to deal with incoming post. We used to get some very poorly addressed post, but the postmen were pretty good – they knew that a letter to "the onion shaped building, Brighton" was for us.
One day, there arrived this postcard – or rather, a gummed-down envelope, decorated with seemingly random clippings and scrawled all over with anti-nuclear and peace slogans in five languages. It was bizarre, and it had come from Leipzig in the (then) East Germany – from behind the Iron Curtain. I was so taken with it that I kept it. And when I came across it the other day I realised it was almost exactly 25 years since Anjelika (that's all I could make of her name) sent it. Click on the images for a closer view.
The main message reads "Don't stand there with your hands in your pockets! To children love, life, peace! World youth unite. Forward to lasting peace. Working men of all countries unite! Apartheid no! Beat street. FOR A TOTAL BAN NUCLEAR WEAPON"
Every time I look at this I am consumed with questions.
Who was Anjelika, and why did she send this to the Brighton Art Gallery? Was this one of many, sent at random, to various institutions around the world? What's the significance of the images and the newspaper cuttings? Who is the man on the front (a political figure? I feel I should know this!) Was the date significant – 10th June 1985? Was it part of some grassroots peace/anti nuclear campaign? Was it just a random outpouring of feeling? Where is Anjelika now?
If you can throw any light on any of this, please get in touch because I would love to know more about this strange little missive!
