Staging International Science for Peace. Science Popularization in Action at UNESCO Month, 1946
Résumé
In November 1946, Paris hosted a month-long diplomatic and cultural summit to officially launch the newly created UNESCO. Next to the General Conference (GC), the Preparatory Commission of UNESCO ran UNESCO Month, a combination of artistic, cultural and scientific events and exhibitions to publicly display what the new agency was about and promote its future policies. Unlike the existing historiography, this paper approaches the beginning of UNESCO and its science program by emphasizing for the first time the GC’s cultural twin, the UNESCO month and more specifically the International Scientific Exposition (ISE). Zooming in on the making and actual displays of the exposition, this paper examines the forms and functions of science popularization in the very early days of UNESCO. It appears that the International Scientific Exposition was not just a display of Joseph Needham’s vision for UNESCO science but was already his vision in action. Besides promoting the socially conscious scientist as harbinger of peace and progress, the exposition constituted a first experiment in science popularization for Needham’s newly formed Natural Science (NS) Division. By scrutinizing the content but also the making, forms and personnel of the exposition, this paper provides insights into the exhibitory regime Needham hoped to implement to popularize the social and international function of science through UNESCO.