A 500-pound globe of the world, one of five built in World War II by a now-defunct Chicago Heights firm, is scheduled to be restored to its original glory thanks to the city`s high school district.
Why restore a dusty old globe that`s been sitting in a high school library for almost 20 years?
Because it`s historic, say officials of Bloom High School District 206. The district last week voted $5,000 for the restoration work.
Weber-Costello, a Chicago Heights-based school supply company that also made globes, was commissioned by the Army to make four globes in 1942, at a cost of $3,200 each, said Carmelita Curl, a school librarian and a member of the high school`s Save the Globe Committee. At the time, the globes were an official military secret, perhaps because by looking at them a careful observer might have been able to discern something of America`s war intentions.
One of the globes was given to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a Christmas present in 1942. Others went to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in London, the U.S. Office of War Information, and the United States Army Air Forces.
But Weber-Costello made a fifth, slightly smaller globe that it apparently kept, although there are rumors that it originally was intended for Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. When the company went out of business in the 1960s, it donated that globe to the high school.
Bloom`s globe sat in a history classroom for several years. When the teacher who had it retired, it almost was cut in half to serve as flower planters. But the school library eventually claimed it, and there it has been gathering dust until the committee decided to do something about it.
”We had been admiring the globe for such a long time, that we finally went to the school principal and asked if we could have it restored to its original likeness,” Curl said.
One of the reasons the globe is remarkable, committee members say, is that the five were made of cherry wood. ”The globes were quite beautiful when they were first made,” Curl noted. Now, however, the school`s globe is faded, patched with tape and generally dilapidated.
The other four globes each weighed 750 pounds. ”Churchill and Roosevelt probably followed the progress of the war by looking at the globe,” Curl said.
All of the lettering was dark brown. Plateaus and mountains on the globe were made in brown and yellow. Oceans were shown in pastels of blues and greens.
The scale of Bloom High`s globe is 157.7 miles to the inch. It is 50 inches in diameter. And while most standard globes are marked with 4,000 to 5,000 places, Bloom`s shows 17,000 places.
When the globes were built, particular detail was paid to seaports, all of the islands in the Pacific and other strategic war theaters. A lot of emphasis was put on Africa, due to the Allied invasion there in 1942.
Today, only three of the five original globes can be found. The globe given to President Roosevelt sits in his presidential library in Hyde Park, N.Y. The one given to Churchill is in the Chartwell Museum in England. And, of course, Bloom High School has one.
The globes given to the Office of War Information and the U.S. Army Air Forces cannot be located.
Now that the initial funds have been given to Graphic Conservation Inc. of Chicago, which will restore the globe, an additional $7,000 is needed to complete the project.
The biggest challenge, aside from raising the money from Bloom alumni and parents and local businesses, will be the restoration work.
”Over the years, the globe has been damaged by tape put on its sphere to hold parts of its sections together,” Curl said. ”The removal of the tape, which has already turned yellow, has caused a lot of damage.”
The Save the Globe Committee hopes to have its globe back in Steckel Library in time for national Geography Awareness Week in October.
