Family of Man — UNESCO Memory of the World Register entry
Citation
UNESCO. “Family of Man.” Memory of the World International Register (inscribed 2003). Accessed 2026-04-29. https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/family-man
Relevance
The UNESCO inscription record is the institutional Tier-1 source that establishes The Family of Man as part of the Memory of the World Register (2003) and summarizes the exhibition at institutional level — including a headline figure of “32 themes” for the thematic structure, the 2002 submission year, the submitting state (Luxembourg), and a brief description of pre-inscription international touring (1992–1994: Toulouse, Tokyo, Hiroshima). UNESCO’s “32 themes” count differs from the CNA Luxembourg education site’s “37 themes”; this discrepancy is material and is recorded in research/sections.md.
Key excerpts / pages
Inscription metadata (re-verified 2026-04-29):
- Registration Year: 2003
- Submission Year: 2002
- Submitted by: Luxembourg
- Region: Europe and North America
- Document Type: Books
Composition and scope:
- “it consists of 503 photographs taken by 273 photographers, both professional and amateur, famous and unknown, from 68 countries.”
Thematic structure:
- “The 32 themes, arranged chronologically, reflect the subjects’ joys and sadnesses, their satisfactions and their unhappinesses, and their longing for peace.”
Justification language carried on the register entry:
- “Regarded as the ‘greatest photographic enterprise ever undertaken’”
- “The very personal approach of Steichen arouses interest and exercises minds to this day.”
- “a personal, humanist message that was both courageous and provocative”
- “the memory of an entire era, that of the Cold War and McCarthyism”
Pre-inscription touring (briefly noted on the register entry):
- “during 1992 and 1993–1994, restored versions traveled internationally, including stops in Toulouse, Tokyo, and Hiroshima.”
Linked nomination forms (URLs confirmed from the register page link list 2026-04-29; PDFs themselves NOT fetched, content NOT read):
- English nomination form:
https://media.unesco.org/sites/default/files/webform/mow001/family_of_man_nomination_form.pdf - French nomination form:
https://media.unesco.org/sites/default/files/webform/mow001/family_of_man_fr.pdf
Notes
- Originally accessed 2026-04-19; re-verified 2026-04-29 with additional excerpts captured. The earlier excerpts (the 503/273/68 figure, the 32-themes sentence) were confirmed verbatim against the re-fetch.
- The “32 themes” figure here is inconsistent with the “37 themes” figure on the CNA-run education site (
thefamilyofman.education). Both are Tier-1-adjacent institutional claims. Our repo records the discrepancy rather than choosing a side; seeresearch/sections.md§”How many sections?”. - The two nomination-form PDFs are linked from the register page; their URLs are recorded above for future-pass fetch attempts. Their content is NOT in this source entry.
- The 1992–1994 pre-inscription touring entry adds Toulouse, Tokyo, and Hiroshima as venues for the restored prints in the years immediately preceding the 1994 Clervaux permanent installation; this is relevant to
/tour/as well as/unesco/. - Perspective: institutional.