A piece of tile from Adolf Hitler’s urinal is on display at the Kennedy Museum of Art at The Ridges.
Though Adolf Hitler never made it big as an artist, he did manage to get a piece on display at the Kennedy Museum of Art.
A piece of tile from Hitler’s urinal previously located in his bunker in East Prussia is on display at the Kennedy Museum through Sept. 13.
The tile is temporarily on display at the Museum as they “borrowed it” from the Ohio University Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collection, said Douglas McCabe, curator of manuscripts at the Mahn Center.
The Mahn Center, located on the fifth floor at Alden Library, is home to the Cornelius Ryan Room. Ryan was a war correspondent for The Daily Telegraph during World War II, and that’s how he met fellow war correspondent Walter Cronkite.
“We have Ryan’s personal library from his house, we have memorabilia of his that he collected over his lifetime and then we have all of his research files from those books and other things that he wrote,” McCabe said.
On June 5, 1970, Ryan’s 50th birthday was celebrated at the 21 Club in New York City. Ryan’s wife invited several war correspondents including Cronkite, but Cronkite was unable to attend. Despite his absence Cronkite sent Ryan a piece of tile from Hitler’s personal bathroom at his military headquarters in East Prussia. Cronkite found the piece of tile during a post-war visit of ruins of the headquarters.
“Cronkite had taken the tile and mounted it on a piece of walnut and then had a brass plate made up that says: ‘Hitler stood here’,” McCabe said. “It’s kind of a joke I guess.”
A museum’s study course is taught through at the Kennedy Museum at The Ridges.
“Part of that is for the students to put together an exhibit or display as part of their coursework and they were looking for items that might be used and contacted us over here at the Mahn Center and that was one of the things that they thought they’d like to borrow to put on an exhibit,” McCabe said.
When the tile comes back to the Mahn Center at the beginning of Fall Semester, McCabe said he will put the piece of Hitler’s urinal tile back on permanent display in the Ryan Room.
The Ryan Room was made possible by John Wilhelm and his wife.
Wilhelm was the director of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism in 1968 and then his second year he became the first Dean of the College of Communication.
“Wilhelm was a war correspondent during World War II as well and he and Ryan became pretty close friends,” McCabe said. “When Ryan emigrated to the United States in 1949 they reconnected with their friendship and that continued all the way through Ryan’s life.”
In 1974, Ryan died, but Wilhelm remained friends with Ryan’s wife.
“In 1981 arrangements were made for the collection to come here and be a part of our archives,” McCabe said.
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