With World AIDS Day soon approaching,
it seems opportune to mention a special acquisition that the LSHTM Archive
received this September. Following a visit to the archives to view the LSHTM
HIV/AIDS collection by Lyn Rothman, the founder of AIDS Crisis Trust and current
patron and board member of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, she kindly offered
to donate a Red Ribbon pendant designed by her friend, Andrew
Logan, the English artist and jewellery-maker.
We received, several weeks later, a parcel containing not only the AIDS Red Ribbon pendant designed by the artist but a note on the pendant from Andrew Logan that Lyn had asked him to write about his creation.
The pendant was designed when the first
AIDS ribbons appeared and having seen many of his friends die from AIDS, Andrew
felt it was a fitting celebration of their lives.
The
original red ribbon designed by New York-based Visual AIDS Artists Caucus in
1991 as a consciousness raising symbol, not as a commercial or trademark tool,
and therefore the original creators wished to remain anonymous and the image is
free of copyright.
The first red ribbon worn publicly was by Jeremy Irons at the 1991 Tony Awards and soon became renowned as an international symbol of AIDS awareness, becoming adopted as the symbol of World AIDS Day that same year.
To read more about the history of the
Red Ribbon please visit: http://www.worldaidsday.org/the-red-ribbon.php
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