Will Highlight Muhammad Ali’s Gold Medal Win at 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy
The Muhammad Ali Center’s online exhibit World Stage: An Olympic Introduction to the Greatest of All Time will go live Wednesday, July 14th at 12:00 noon ET on the Center’s Digital Museum and Archive website. The exhibit will showcase the 1960 Olympic Games held in Rome, Italy when the world first experienced the charismatic, talkative, and talented young boxer named Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. from Louisville, Kentucky. The online exhibit highlights items from the Muhammad Ali Center’s permanent collection that relate to the 1960 Rome Olympic Games and Muhammad Ali’s first international triumph, the win that put him on the map and set the tone for Ali’s high profile and successful professional boxing career.
One of the items featured in World Stage is the replacement gold medal that was presented to Muhammad Ali during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. It was during this Opening Ceremony that Ali carried the Olympic torch and lit the Olympic cauldron 36 years after his Olympic victory. The replacement gold medal is on loan from Mrs. Lonnie Ali and is on display at the Ali Center.
This past June, the Muhammad Ali Center launched its online archival collection and now offers digital exhibits for the world to experience for free as another way to extend Muhammad Ali’s global reach. The opening exhibit was entitled Muhammad and LeRoy: A Friendship in Art, in honor of artist LeRoy Neiman’s 100th birthday anniversary on June 8th.
The Ali Center’s digital museum and archives was launched in partnership with HistoryIT, which was responsible for creating the website and for the migration of some of the items, and was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through a $50,000 grant.
World Stage: An Olympic Introduction to the Greatest of All Time can be viewed online HERE.