It was an ordinary day. Reading my "Saturday Evening Post" when I came across a story about Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" painting. The 1943 painting traced its inspiration back to the 1941 State of the Union address by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he outlined four democratic values that he considered essential to preserve: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. Mr. Rockwell's paintings appeared in the 1943 "Saturday Evening Post" and shortly after began a sixteen-city Four Freedoms War Bond Show tour to publicize the Second War Loan Drive. The U.S. Treasury Department, realizing their potential to generate revenue through the sale of war bonds and to boost public morale, partnered with the "Saturday Evening Post" to sponsor the tour. Mr. Rockwell appeared at Hecht's Department Store in downtown Washington, DC where he met with celebrities and signed autographs, but found he didn't care to travel with the exhibit that was meant to raise money for the war effort. The tour of the paintings started in Washington, DC and gradually worked its way around points west. From June 16 to 26, 1943, the exhibition was on view at New York's Rockefeller Center, and overall, became the rallying point of a massive national outpouring of patriotic enthusiasm. I would have loved to have a "Four Freedoms" painting, but my guess is that it is fairly expensive and perhaps hard to find. I hope you can see the painting that I have illustrated in my story today. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - And, a Happy 4th to You!
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