Art at Fulbright reception in London - 1950

Arthur Vidich and his wife Virginia with two other Americans at the U.S. Embassy in London

Art is seen here at a reception for Fulbright scholars held at the U.S. Embassy in London. Photograph taken in 1950 by the Portman Press Bureau located by Pavilion Road, Solane Street, London. Art spent most of his time in London working on his PhD dissertation titled The Political Impact of Colonial Administration which documents his analysis of the colonial era on the island of Palau. His anthropological study is one of the rare gems of cultural historiography for that island nation and it remains a must read for those interested in Palau's culture.

Many American are not aware that the early post World War II years in London were some of the most bleak in that nation's history. My father told me that air pollution was so bad in the early 1950s that bus drivers could not see more than 3 feet through their front window because of the thick veil of coal smoke.  The only way accidents were avoided was by having a man walk in front of each bus to escort it through the roads. The pollution was not limited to the outside - our Hyde Park apartment was also polluted with coal smoke.  Shocking as it may seem, the bigger issue in London was not the deadly "London Fog" but the lack of coal to stay warm in the winter. Children who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s have no conception of how dire living conditions were right after the war.