Charter of the United Nations, Carl Dair, c1962–63

This item came from Carl Dair’s daughter Willa, who thought that it may have been a Christmas card created by her father. Unfortunately, she did not know when it was made or the story behind it. Throughout his life Dair always had his own private press which allowed him to typeset and letterpress print his own Christmas cards, some were quite unorthodox, so this may well have been one of those cards. However, we have never seen another copy, or heard any reference to this specific card.

It would appear that some international event upset Dair enough to move him to create this graphic statement of protest. One event that comes to mind is the United States naval blockade of Cuba in late 1962. In a letter dated 22 October 1962 addressed to the President of the Security Council of the United Nations, the representative of Cuba requests the convening of the Council to consider the question of ‘the act of war unilaterally committed by the Government of the United States in ordering the naval blockade of Cuba’. The United Nations eventually sided with the United States, which may have affected his decision.

Dair reset the specific Chapter and Article from the Charter of the United Nations – then rips it in half! (We suspect the burnt corner was only a test that he may have felt was not as strong a gesture as ripping the card in half.).

We believe that, for whatever reason, Dair changed his mind and went further than this test. These torn fragments ended up in his papers without any explanation. There is also the possibility that it was not intended as a Christmas card at all and may have been an exploratory design for some other application.

Details _ Unknown If you have a copy of this item or know of someone who may have actually received it, or if you know of any references to this piece, please contact us.