Sittings
Photographs
Legacy
Canada Mint Celebrates Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with Karsh Portrait
“Royal Canadian Mint engravers have expertly reproduced the original portrait taken by Yousuf Karsh in 1948. As a unique addition, Einstein’s breakthrough formula E=mc2 has been included within the image….
Barbara Ann Scott
Barbara Ann Scott, 1939 Barbara Ann Scott was a Canadian figure skater. She was the 1948 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (1947–1948), and a four-time Canadian national champion (1944–46,…
Barbara Ann Scott
Barbara Ann Scott, 1939 Canadian figure skater Barbara Ann Scott – born 1928, pictured here at age 11 – was the 1948 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (1947–1948), and…
The Marshall Plan
…Secretary of State. Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. See Marshall in his 1944 Sitting. See some other Nobel Prize winners photographed by Karsh. Harry Truman, 1948…
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, 1936 William Lyon Mackenzie King died on this day, July 22, in 1950 (b. 1874). King was Canada’s 10th Prime Minister and served from 1921-1930, and…
Harry Truman
Harry Truman, 1948 President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces. This executive order abolished discrimination “on…
Helen Keller
Helen Keller, 1948 Helen Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. She was photographed on this day, March 8, in 1948. Keller was photographed alone…
Princess Juliana
Princess Juliana, 1943 Juliana (1909-2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. She is pictured with her third child, Princess Margriet, who was born on…
Dominion Drama Festival
Alumnae Theatre Company, 1948, performing Ruth Gordon’s play “Years Ago”, 1948 Yousuf Karsh was heavily involved with the Ottawa Little Theater, where he cut his lighting teeth, and was the…
Herman Leonard
Herman Leonard, 1947 “Herman Leonard began his career as an apprentice to famed portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh. Building on the lessons learned as a darkroom assistant and those gleaned from…
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
Princess Elizabeth and family, 1951 On this day, June 2, in 1953, Princess Elizabeth was formally crowned Queen Elizabeth II. This informal family portrait was made earlier, in 1951 at…
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford was photographed in December, 1948, for Collier’s Magazine. The American publication was founded in 1888 by Irish immigrant Peter Collier, and was launched as a magazine of “fiction,…
Edwin Land
Edwin Land, 1966 Edwin Herbert Land was born on this day, May 7, in 1909. He is best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters…
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman, 1948 Harry S. Truman was born on this day, May 9, in 1884. He was the 33rd president of the United States, from 1945 to 1953, having…
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa, 1988 Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, known as Mother Teresa, was born on this day, August 26, in 1910. She began working in the slums of Calcutta in India in…
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter, 1981 James Earl Carter Jr. was born on this day, October 1, in 1924. The 39th President of the United States was photographed not long before he would…
Collecting New York’s Stories
Marx Brothers, 1948 Collecting New York’s Stories: Stuyvesant to Sid Vicious opens tomorrow, January 22, 2020, at The Museum of the City of New York, and features highlights drawn from…
Clark Gable
Clark Gable, 1948 American film actor Clark Gable was born on February 1, in 1901. Gable had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career…
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein, 1948 German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein was born on March 14, in 1879 (d. 1955). Einstein is known widely for developing the theory of relativity, but he also…
Elizabeth Arden
Elizabeth Arden, 1948 Canadian-American business woman Elizabeth Arden died on this day, October 18, in 1966. Born Florence Nightingale Graham in 1881, she went by the name Elizabeth Arden and…
Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk, 1956 American virologist and medical researcher Jonas Salk was born on this day, October 28, in 1914 (d. 1995). In 1947, Salk accepted a professorship in the School…
Clark Gable
Clark Gable, 1948 Hollywood leading man Clark Gable died on November 16, 1960 (b. 1901). He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career…
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford, 1948 American actress Joan Crawford died on this day, May 10, in 1977. Born Lucille Fay LeSueur sometime between 1904 and 1908, she starred in dozens of films,…
The Karsh Family
Karsh with his mother, Bahiyah, and brothers Salim, Malak, and Jamil, 1948 Karsh’s records show 46 sittings that took place on August 1sts between 1933 to 1993. On August 1st…
“A Singular Friendship”
Winston Churchill and William Lyon Mackenzie King, 1941 Last week our colleagues at Library and Archives Canada held an online discussion titled “A Singular Friendship: Yousuf Karsh and William Lyon…
Edwin Land
Edwin Land, 1966 There is a wonderful Instagram page, Photographers Photographed, devoted to portraits of photographers by photographers, which prompted me to think about all the photographers and photo-related inventors…
Herman Leonard
Herman Leonard, 1947 Today marks the centenary of the birth of photographer Herman Leonard (March 6, 1923; d. 2010.) Leonard gained a BFA degree in photography in 1947 from Ohio…
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein, 1948 German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein was born on March 14, in 1879 (d. 1955). Einstein is known widely for developing the theory of relativity, but he also…
Agnes Macphail
Agnes Macphail, 1934 Agnes Macphail (1890-1954) was the first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons and one of the first two women elected to the Ontario legislature. She…