Click to see a larger image (59k)
"Cuando saliamos de Màlaga antes de entrar los fascists"
(When we left Màlaga before the fascists came in)
[between 1936 and 1939], Spain
Maria Benitez, 12 years old
Colonia de St. Hilaire
Alexander Albert MacLeod fonds
Reference Code: F 126-4
Archives of Ontario: I0029904

The images reproduced in this virtual exhibit are from the Alexander Albert MacLeod fonds (F 126) and were drawn by Spanish children evacuated to "colonias infantiles" between 1936 and 1939.

The drawings have survived intact for over half a century and now re-appear as fresh as when they were first drawn. They depict the children's experience with warfare and evacuation and are just a few of the thousands created in perhaps the first instance of organized art therapy.

In 1937 over 3000 drawings were displayed in Valencia, Spain. Others were exhibited in England and the United States, primarily to help raise awareness and donations.

But irrespective of their original purpose or ultimate use, they are a poignant reminder in their simplicity of the impact of armed conflict on children the World over.