Sittings
Dr. Irving T. Langmuir
Dr. Ralph J. Bunche
Dr. Melvin Calvin
Dr. Charles Townes
Professor Murray Gell-Mann
Dr. Baruj Benacerraf
Photographs
Legacy
The Nobel Prize
…Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961. Hideki Yukawa, 1969 Hideki Yukawa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1949. See a list of some other Nobel Prize winners who…
Pearl Buck
…Nobel Prize winners including the first African-American winner, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, a professor of government at Harvard University who won the Peace Prize. See information about the Nobel Sittings….
Pearl Buck
…The Nobel Prize committee in awarding the prize said: By awarding this year’s Prize to Pearl Buck for the notable works which pave the way to a human sympathy passing…
Nobel Peace Prize
Nelson Mandela, 1990 On October 16, in 1993, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk were jointly named Nobel Peace Prize winners. De Klerk served as State President of South Africa…
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev, 1990 On this day, October 15, in 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important…
Albert Camus
Albert Camus, 1954 Nobel Prize winning author, journalist, and philosopher Albert Camus died on this day, January 4, in 1960 (b. 1913). Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in…
Linus Pauling
…chemistry and molecular biology. He is also one of only two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields – Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1954; Nobel Peace Prize, 1962….
Albert Camus
…Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the second-youngest recipient of this Prize, at the age of 44 – Rudyard Kipling was only 42 when he received his. See some examples…
Bertrand Russell
…historian, writer, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950, the year after this portrait was made. See another portrait from this sitting….
Ralph J. Bunche
…the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Israel. He is the first African American and…
Isaac Bashevis Singer
…he always considered Yiddish his natural tongue. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. See some other Nobel Prize winners who were photographed by Karsh. See another…
Alexander Fleming
…substance benzylpenicillin (Penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris…
Mother Teresa
…1948 and went on to found the Missionaries of Charity, orphanages, hospitals and hospices dedicated to the sick and the poor. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. All…
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…
Francois Mauriac
Francois Mauriac, 1949 Francois Mauriac was born on this day, October 11, in 1885. He was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, and was awarded the Nobel Prize…
Dr. Andrei Sakharov
Dr. Andrei Sakharov, 1989 On this day, October 9, 1975, Dr. Andrei Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Sakharov was a Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, and activist for…
Dag Hammarskjold
…Secretary-General post, and is one of one of only four people to be awarded a posthumous Nobel Prize. United States President John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjold “the greatest statesman of…
Baruj Benacerraf
Dr. Baruj Benacerraf, 1988 Baruj Benacerraf was born on this day, October 29, in 1920. He was a Venezuelan-American immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine…
Lord Bertrand Russell
…writer, social critic, political activist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 “in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom…
Albert Camus
…sat for Karsh, Camus would receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the second-youngest recipient of this Prize, at the age of 44 – Rudyard Kipling was only 42…
John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck, 1954 American author John Steinbeck died on this day, December 20, in 1968 (b. 1902). “A giant of American letters,” Steinbeck was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in…
Albert Camus
…Camus would receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the second-youngest recipient of this Prize, at the age of 44 – Rudyard Kipling was 42 when he received his….
The Grapes of Wrath
…during the Great Depression, the book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962….
Sir Alexander Fleming
…discovery, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. This portrait has been newly added to the website. It was…
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann, 1946 Thomas Mann (1875-1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His 1918 book “Reflections of…
John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck, 1954 John Steinbeck’s first successful novel, Tortilla Flat, was published on this day, May 28, in 1935. The American writer was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature…
Melvin Calvin
…James Bassham, they were awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Melvin Calvin featured as one of four scientists honored with a U.S. Postal Service stamp, in 2011. The…
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr., 1962 On October 14, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. Karsh wrote: “In August 1962…
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw, 1943 Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw died on this day, November 2, in 1950. He wrote more than sixty plays and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel…
Thomas Mann’s Hands
…German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. While we don’t have a digitized copy of the picture in question, the…
Ralph Bunche
Ralph Bunche, 1950 Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who on this day, December 10, in 1950, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts…
Ralph Bunche
Ralph Bunche, 1950 Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who on this day, December 10, in 1950, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts…
Dr. Martin Luther King
…jail by Billy Graham. King was awarded at least fifty honorary degrees from colleges and universities, and in 1964 he became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which…
Elie Wiesel, 1928-2016
Elie Wiesel, 1991 Author, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Auschwitz survivor, Elie Wiesel, died in June, 2016. Elie Wiesel was photographed by Karsh in 1991. Read the obituary in the…
James Watson
…subsequent Nobel Prize award for it. James Watson was photographed for the 1992 book American Legends in which Karsh is quoted: “The informal and charming Nobelist, not content to rest…
John Steinbeck
…the frontispiece. Described as “A resonant biography of America’s most celebrated novelist of the Great Depression” it is the first full-length biography of the Nobel laureate to appear in a…
Lester Pearson
…day, December 27, in 1972 (b. 1897). Pearson was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis and is…
Lech Walesa
…workers’ concerns and in 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Although it was late in Mr. Karsh’s career, 1989 was still very prolific. See who else was photographed….
Andrei Sakharov Memorial Concert
…with you.” Sakharov was a Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Read more about him….
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer, 1954 On this day, January 14, in 1875, Albert Schweitzer was born. Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of 1952, and his acceptance speech, “The Problem of…
Lester Pearson: Most Canadian Photograph Ever?
…House of Commons in 1957. Pearson, standing in the foreground, was a Canadian scholar, statesman, soldier and diplomat, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United…