Britain’s BBC TV is now airing the 10 part series “Trust”, starring Donald Sutherland as J. Paul Getty, the billionaire oil baron whose grandson and heir to his fortune, John Paul Getty III, is kidnapped. The series aired on the American channel FX earlier this year.

The Sutherland/Getty resemblance is uncanny!

 

Thanks to social media, we sometimes discover gems new to the Estate. This lovely photograph of Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer being photographed by Yousuf Karsh in 1956 is a perfect example. MPTV Images were generous to share their digital copy, which will be added to the Life in Images gallery on this website.

Click here to see Karsh’s choice from the sitting.

“Chagall: Stories into Dreams” opens on September 28, 2018, at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida. “This extraordinary show of Marc Chagall’s work will be the only one of its kind in Florida and the only one in the country that pairs his Fables of La Fontaine etchings (1952) with his Story of Exodus lithographs (1966).”

Karsh’s 1965 portrait of Chagall graces the invitation for a salon-style gathering and tour of the exhibition taking place on October 15th. Read more.

This week the United States will seat a new supreme court justice. Yousuf Karsh photographed several North American justices, from the 1930s to the 1970s, as you can see from this long list.

For example, Earl Warren, who served as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1953-1969, where he oversaw groundbreaking decisions including banning segregation in public schools. He was later appointed to chair what became known as the Warren Commission, which was formed to investigate the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Warren is the last Supreme Court justice to have served as governor of a U.S. state, the last justice to have been elected to statewide elected office, and the last serving politician to be elevated to the Supreme Court. (Wikipedia)

This portrait features on the cover of the The Warren Court (Macmillan Books, 1964).

Leo DeLuca is a three-time All Ohio Excellence in Journalism award winner, the co-author of Dayton’s Spirit of Community Service and Leadership, and a WYSO Radio Community Voices scholarship recipient. Leo interviewed Estrellita Karsh for WYSO in conjunction with the Dayton Art Institute’s “American Portraits” exhibition. As well as telling the compelling story behind the 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill that truly launched Karsh’s career, Estrellita speaks to how Karsh’s own history informed his work, leading to such intimate and honest photographs.

“My husband was in the Armenian massacres,” says Estrellita Karsh. “He had no childhood. They had to leave their house, open the door, and walk out. And that was it. That’s how they left. Along the way his sister died of starvation. His mother, she gave him a tin cup and a tin spoon, and she said: ‘Don’t let anybody eat from this. This is all I can do for you, my son.’”

It was enough. Karsh arrived in Canada in 1925 where he lived with his photographer uncle, George Nakash, who inspired him to take photos. On December 30, 1941, age 32, his life was forever changed when Winston Churchill visited Ottawa.

Listen to the interview.

Dayton Art Institute is the only midwest stop for the traveling “American Portraits” exhibition, and it closes soon, on September 16, 2018.

In celebration of a major gift to its collection of more than 100 portraits, this exhibition features iconic photographs of Americans who have distinguished themselves in fields as diverse as business, medicine, entertainment, politics and the arts. Among the portraits included were those of artist Georgia O’Keeffe, physician and virologist Jonas Salk, singer Marian Anderson, actress Grace Kelly, businesswoman Elizabeth Arden, architect I. M. Pei and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. “Yousuf Karsh: American Portraits” was the National Portrait Gallery’s first exhibition devoted entirely to the work of this internationally recognized portrait photographer, and was presented in two installations.

The curator of this exhibition was National Portrait Gallery Senior Curator of Photographs Ann Shumard.

Next stops: October 18, 2018 to January 20, 2019 at Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL.

February 8, 2019 to May 5, 2019 at The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY.

The 2018 Icon Book & Paper Conference takes place in Oxford, England, from October 1 – 3. The conference “aims to explore the conservator’s approach to treating objects such as artists’ sketchbooks or authors’ manuscripts: paper-based items which were not necessarily created with posterity in mind.”

The book conservator for the Harvard Library, Catherine Badot-Costello, is working on the conservation of the Solti archive of conductor’s scores and will include this portrait of Solti in her presentation Capturing the Marks of the Maestro; Conservation, Digitization and Preservation of Material Evidence in the Sir Georg Solti Archive on day one of the conference.

Learn more at the Institute of Conservation.

It is a great pleasure to announce Anne Havinga’s appointment to the Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Chair of the Department of Photography at Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Nearly three decades ago, Anne’s career at the MFA began, and in 2001, she became the Museum’s first curator of photographs. In his comments, Matthew Teitelbaum, Ann and Graham Gund Director at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, said of Anne:

Her ambitions, realized both through exhibitions – including Alfred Stieglitz and Modern America; In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11 with Anne Nishimura Morse; and Silver, Salt, and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France – as well as collection strategy and development, have prepared her well to lead the department at an important time. Her work with her departmental colleagues and with partners across and outside of the institution has been inspiring.

We look forward to working with Anne in her new role for many years to come.

Fulton Sheen was an American bishop (later archbishop) of the Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Sheen worked on three books with Yousuf Karsh: This is the Holy Land, and This is Rome (1959); and These Are The Sacraments (1962).

We recently worked with the The Archbishop Sheen Spiritual Center in Peoria, Illinois, on a search for this photograph. Our colleagues at the Library and Archives of Canada dug deep and found us this image from This is the Holy Land.

The Bishop can be seen in this wedding photograph of Yousuf Karsh and Estrellita in 1962.

See more Fulton Sheen.

Fidel Castro was born on this day, August 13, in 1926. In “Regarding Heroes,” (Godine, 2009) Karsh shares the story of his 1971 visit with the communist revolutionary.

At the end of our host’s tour of the facilities, we inspected two or three possible places for photography. I chose a simple ceremonial room with a few bookshelves and walls so stark as to suggest a barracks. It turned out to be Castro’s own office. I set up my equipment and went home to the Canadian Embassy, where I was staying as a guest of the ambassador, Kenneth Brown. And then I waited to learn when Castro would see me. Days passed. They were pleasant enough: the weather was wonderful, and I was free to explore where I wished… But planes then left Cuba only once a week, and my time for departure was fast approaching. On the last day, I phoned the Protocol Office every hour: when would the prime minister be free? My frustration was not eased by the embassy phone, which periodically went out of order.

Not until after six o’clock, the last evening, did word come that two cars were on their way to fetch me. Castro arrived in the room we had chosen, quietly, graciously, but looking grave and tired. He was taller than he appeared in photographs. He shook my hand and immediately removed the belt and pistol that were part of his uniform. Then he apologized for keeping me waiting so long; he had had many guests and duties during the previous days of anniversary celebrations. As I readied the camera, I suggested that, to start, he might try to recapture the moods of our first moments together. “I’m sorry, I cannot,” he replied charmingly. “I am not a good enough actor. I cannot play myself.”

Our session lasted three-and-a-half hours. From time to time we would stop to refresh ourselves with Cuban rum and Coke. “Tell me,” he said, “about photographing Helen Keller.” Then he asked about Shaw, Churchill, Camus, Cocteau, and mostly about Hemingway, whose home near Havana is a shrine. I was impressed that Castro – a revolutionary – should have made room in his life for these creative luminaries.

See some magazine covers that featured Karsh in their obituaries of Castro.

The Woodstock Music & Art Fair kicked off today, August 15, in 1969. Karsh photographed two musical artists who performed that famous weekend: Ravi Shankar and Joan Baez. Ravi Shankar was on from 10-10:35 pm and played through the rain. Joan Baez played later the same night, while six months pregnant.

Australian Women’s Weekly is celebrating its 85th anniversary with this souvenir edition featuring one of Yousuf Karsh’s portraits of Her Majesty as the full cover. The popular portrait was made in 1951 when Elizabeth was still Princess. Women’s Weekly has published many covers of the Royal family beginning with the first Weekly issue in June 1933, which featured a young Princess Elizabeth and her grandmother Queen Mary. You can see all of their past Royal covers here.

Our colleagues at the National Library of Medicine have this photograph of Victor McKusick in their archives, and recently referred The Jackson Laboratory to us to discuss the Lab’s use of the image as a poster to promote next year’s Maine State Science Fair. A copy of the poster will be sent to every high school in Maine.

Dr. Victor McKusick was an American internist and medical geneticist, and Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He was a proponent of the mapping of the human genome due to its use for studying congenital diseases. He was photographed by Karsh during his tenure at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Here’s what Jackson Lab told us:

The Maine State Science Fair is a state-wide STEM research exposition and competition, affiliated with the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Over 300 Maine students attend the MSSF to present their projects in life sciences, engineering, computer sciences, environmental sciences, and other STEM fields. The MSSF awards over $1 million in college tuition scholarships and provides a venue for students to share their love of science.

It is our hope that Maine high school students will view the poster and will learn about a scientist important to the field of medical genetics and from their home state of Maine.

The Jackson Laboratory, founded in 1929, is an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit biomedical research institution based in Bar Harbor, Maine, with a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, a facility in Sacramento, Calif., and a genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Conn. Learn more about them.

On this day, July 30, in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law in the United States to provide health insurance to people age 65 and older, regardless of income or medical history.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first White House Conference on Aging in January 1961, in which creating a health care program for social security beneficiaries was proposed. Its first beneficiary was former President Harry Truman. Read more.

 

On this day, July 26, in 1775, the United States postal system was established. Benjamin Franklin was its first postmaster general.

Dr. Melvin Calvin featured as one of four scientists honored with a U.S. Postal Service stamp, in 2011. The Karsh portrait of Dr. Calvin features in the background. Karsh photographed Arthur Summerfield, 54th Postmaster General of the United States, in 1953. Summerfield served under Dwight D. Eisenhower, from 1953 to 1961.

Netflix series The Crown is proving to be one of the most successful and most “binge-watched” series of all time. The series is intended to last 60 episodes over six seasons, with 10 one-hour episodes per season, covering Elizabeth’s life from her younger years to her reign, and with new actors being cast every two seasons.

Naturally, Mr. Karsh photographed many of the people who are portrayed in the show. Aside from Churchill, here are some of the other prominent figures.

Learn more about the Royal Sittings.

On this day, July 18, in 1918, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born. The anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader was photographed by Karsh in June, 1990, just four months after Mandela’s release from prison. Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada at the time, greeted Mandela at the airport and accompanied him to the Chateau Laurier for his portrait. Read what happened.

Edward Durell Stone was a twentieth century American architect. He designed buildings throughout the world. Among his notable works are Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, and the United States Embassy in New Delhi, India.

Palo Alto City Library is currently holding a small photographic exhibit on the work of Mr. Stone, and included this Karsh portrait. The exhibition is on through the end of August, 2018.

Dr. Hans Selye was a pioneering Hungarian-Canadian endocrinologist known for demonstrating the existence of biological stress and indeed coining the term “stress”. Hungarian journalist Zsuzsanna Balázs contacted us about her article on Dr. Selye. She mentions that Selye “later thought that if he knew better English, he would probably have used “strain.””

Read the whole article (translate from Hungarian).

In 1968 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada – as was Mr. Karsh, in 1990. Dr. Selye was photographed twice, in 1953 and 1973.

The “American Portraits” exhibition is currently at the Dayton Art Museum. We heard from a local who was involved in a scavenger hunt around various exhibits at the museum, asking if we could help with the answer to the question “At what university was Karsh a visiting professor until 1969?” Mrs. Karsh told us that it was Ohio University in Athens. Other questions included:

Who headed the United Mine Workers of America?  Who designed Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel in 1922?  Who starred in “The Emperor Jones”?

Drop us a line if you have an interesting Karsh story!

Emails telling us Karsh stories are always welcome, and we recently heard from a one-time medical student at Johns Hopkins. The gentleman said he happened to be present the day the portrait of Dr. Taussig was taken, and shared his memories. He also shared an article by Lisa S. Rotenstein, M.D., M.B.A., and Anupam B. Jena, M.D., Ph.D. that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Lost Taussigs: The Consequences of Gender Discrimination in Medicine” is about gender-based harassment and discrimination in the medical industry.

“Medicine has not been immune to the problems of gender-based harassment and discrimination that have surfaced in other industries, despite efforts in recent decades to increase the field’s diversity and inclusiveness. Aside from the obvious moral issues associated with mistreatment of and job discrimination against women physicians, we believe that greater focus is needed on the potential consequences for patients and biomedical science of the loss of talent and worse outcomes that result when women in medicine are slighted, overlooked, or explicitly wronged.

“In the 1940s, Dr. Helen Taussig developed the Blalock–Taussig shunt for congenital cyanotic heart disease, creating a life-extending solution for a condition previously thought to be untreatable. Widely considered the founder of pediatric cardiology and a devoted clinician, she won both the Lasker Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Since that time, how many Helen Taussigs have we lost to discrimination, harassment, and marginalization? And how many more will we lose if things don’t change?”

Read the whole article.

See more about Dr. Taussig.

Moscow, 29 June 2018. On the occasion of Canada Day 2018, the Embassy of Canada in Moscow was honoured to celebrate the enduring cultural legacies of internationally renowned Canadian portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) and legendary Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould (1932-1982).

At a special reception held in the presence of the diplomatic corps, the Ambassador of Canada to the Russian Federation officially unveiled an original portrait of Glenn Gould taken by Yousuf Karsh in 1957 which has been gifted to the Embassy of Canada by the Estate of Yousuf Karsh.  Glenn Gould visited the Embassy in 1957 during his historic concert tour of the Soviet Union, as did Yousuf Karsh subsequently in 1963 to photograph prominent Soviet political and cultural figures of the day.  During the reception, the 50th anniversary of the initial investiture of Yousuf Karsh into the Order of Canada on 26 April 1968 was also marked.  For the Embassy of Canada in Moscow, it was a unique opportunity to honour two towering Canadian cultural icons who proudly shared their talent and creativity with the Russian people.

See more Khrushchevs.

On June 23, 2018, the Dayton Art Institute unveiled “Yousuf Karsh: American Portraits,” on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

About the Exhibition:
During a career that spanned six decades, photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) created iconic portraits of many of the 20th century’s most influential men and women – from fields as diverse as business, medicine, entertainment, politics, and the arts. Karsh photographed countless international figures, but his images of Americans are counted among his finest portraits. This exhibition features 48 black-and-white photographs from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.

Featured portraits include writer Ernest Hemingway; artists Georgia O’Keeffe and Andy Warhol; actors Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart; athletes Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson; business leaders Elizabeth Arden and Warren Buffett; architects Frank Lloyd Wright and I. M. Pei; first ladies Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Eleanor Roosevelt; and entertainment giants Walt Disney and Jim Henson, as well as many others.

The exhibition runs through September 16, 2018. Read more.

India’s Better Photography is the leading photography magazine in India and South Asia. Past issues have included articles about Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Alan Harvey, Cecil Beaton, Gordon Parks, Jane Evelyn Atwood, David Zimmerman, Helmut Newton, and Saul Leiter. June 2018’s issue features the work of Yousuf Karsh. In her in-depth article, Conchita Fernandes writes:

…how did he go about encapsulating his larger-than-life subjects in a photograph? What did he look for? And in the case of some of them, how did he maneuver around their daunting personalities? One example of this was the iconic photograph that he made of Winston Churchill, in 1941. Imagine plucking a cigar out of the mouth of an ill-disposed Churchill, who at the time had gained a kind of mythical status for this authoritative and robust approach in politics. “It’s a story that has been dramatised by the press a great deal… I photographed Churchill three times, twice after that occasion. It was a spontaneous act on my part. It was intuitive. It’s unthinkable that I would plan such a thing beforehand. It was similar to picking a piece of thread off your shirt. It was done with respect and appreciation. But he responded. His expression, although not planned on my part, fit the need of the hour. He represented the great British determination,” Karsh had said of the image. In response to the picture taken of him, Churchill had said to Karsh, “You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed.” That was how far Karsh went to get the picture he wanted. But it was always done with grace and politeness. “I would stand and smile and bow through all the points of the compass… Perhaps it was the only thing I could do really well, and which people could understand.” He always looked for positive values in his sitters, even if they were not known for them. So his subjects trusted him, and revealed a part of their inner selves that very few photographers have managed to do since then.

Read the entire piece.

The Rapho photographic agency was founded in Paris in 1933 by Charles Rado (1899–1970), a Hungarian immigrant. Rapho, an acronym formed from Rado-Photo, is one of the oldest press agencies specializing in humanist photography. Rapho initially represented the small group of Hungarian friends and refugee photographers Brassaï, Nora Dumas, Ergy Landau and Ylla.

Forced to close the agency during World War II, Rado left for the U.S. in 1940. He opened a New York City office at 59 East 54th Street, Rapho Guillumette Pictures, with photographer Paul Guillumette. Rapho was reopened in Paris in 1946 by Raymond Grosset.

Rado and Grosset proceeded to gather a number of photographers whom they represented in varying capacities and sometimes shared, including: Robert Doisneau, Édouard Boubat, Denis Brihat, Bill Brandt, Ken Heyman, Izis, André Kertész, Yousuf Karsh, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Janine Niépce, Willy Ronis, and Sabine Weiss. (Wikipedia)

A relative of Raymond Grosset has been in touch – a new film for French television is being written about animal portraitist Ylla, and this portrait of Rado will be included.

Joan E. Howard is the director of Petite Plaisance, the former home of Marguerite Yourcenar and Grace Frick, and is the author of From Violence to Vision: Sacrifice in the Works of Marguerite Yourcenar. Available now in hardcover and digital download from University of Missouri Press is Howard’s latest book, “We Met in Paris” Grace Frick and Her Life with Marguerite Yourcenar.

Grace Frick introduced English-language readers all over the world to the distinguished French author Marguerite Yourcenar with her award-winning translation of Yourcenar’s novel Memoirs of Hadrian in 1954. European biographies of Yourcenar have often disparaged Frick and her relationship with Yourcenar, however. This work shows Frick as a person of substance in her own right, and paints a portrait of both women that is at once intimate and scrupulously documented. It contains a great deal of new information that will disrupt long-held beliefs about Yourcenar and may even shock some of her scholars and fans.

See more Marguerite Yourcenar by Yousuf Karsh.

From June 8 to September 12, 2018, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents the work of the Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) – the first major museum exhibition in the United States in more than 15 years dedicated to the Swiss-born artist. Installed within the museum’s rotunda, Giacometti examines this preeminent modernist who is renowned for the distinctive figurative sculptures that he produced in reaction to the trauma and anguish of World War II, including a series of elongated standing women, striding men, and expressive bust-length portraits. The exhibition encompasses the entirety of the artist’s career, featuring nearly 200 sculptures, paintings, and drawings, some of which have never before been shown in the United States, as well as archival photographs and ephemera.

Read Jason Farago’s review in the New York Times.

Read the Guggenheim press release.

Alberto Giacometti in his Paris studio.

“Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms” opened at the New-York Historical Society this week and is the first internationally touring exhibition devoted to Rockwell’s iconic depictions of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms. This 1956 portrait by Karsh hangs at the very start of the exhibition.

The traveling exhibition, which was organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, explores how Rockwell’s 1943 paintings – Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Fear, and Freedom from Want – gave visual voice to Roosevelt’s call to the defense of freedom worldwide and took their place among the most enduring images in the history of American art. In addition to Rockwell’s Four Freedoms, the exhibition encompasses numerous other examples of painting, illustration, and more, by both Rockwell and a broad range of his contemporaries, as well as historical documents, photographs, videos, artifacts, and interactive digital displays, all on the theme of the Four Freedoms, from FDR’s initial enunciation of them as a reason to enter the War to their powerful post-war legacy.

Following New-York Historical, the exhibition travels to The Henry Ford, Dearborn, MI; The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.; Mémorial de Caen, Normandy, France; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX ; and the Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA. Read more on New-York Historical Society website.

See another Rockwell portrait.

See Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

On this day, May 25, in 1977, the film Star Wars was released in American movie theaters. The film would go on to win seven Oscars and make household names of the cast. Carrie Fisher was photographed by Karsh a couple of years later in 1979, for “Twentieth Century Film Corp.”

The Estate recently learned of the passing of Dean William Schwartz, of Boston University School of Law. Dean Schwartz served as professor of law at the school for more than 30 years. He led BU Law as dean from 1980 to 1988, during which period he was photographed by Karsh.

This photograph will be used in a memorial celebration taking place in Boston this month.

Read more about Dean Schwartz on the Boston University website.

Douglas Cardinal is a Canadian architect based in Ottawa, Canada. He is still practicing, and his firm was recently in touch about using a portrait.

Cardinal was born in Calgary, Alberta, of Métis, Blackfoot/Kainai, German and Algonquin heritage and is “famous for flowing architecture marked with smooth curvilinear forms and influenced by his Aboriginal heritage as well as European Expressionist architecture.” (Wikipedia)

In this photograph he stands with a rendering of the “New National Museum of Man” (1984), which was renamed the Canadian Museum of Civilization in 1986.

See another Karsh portrait of Douglas Cardinal.

American author, journalist, and “unabashed contrarian” Tom Wolfe has died, aged 88.

“Wolfe adopted wearing a white suit as a trademark in 1962. He bought his first white suit, planning to wear it in the summer, in the style of Southern gentlemen. He found that the suit he purchased was too heavy for summer use, so he wore it in winter, which created a sensation. At the time, white suits were supposed to be reserved for summer wear. Wolfe maintained this as a trademark. He sometimes accompanied it with a white tie, white homburg hat, and two-tone shoes.” (Wikipedia)

Wolfe was photographed late in Karsh’s career, in 1990, one of several people photographed for a project titled “American Legends.” See the other people who were photographed.

On this day, May 12, in 1937, George VI was crowned King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth.

In 1939, King George became the first British monarch to visit America and Canada. From Ottawa, they were accompanied throughout by Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, to present themselves in North America as King and Queen of Canada. George was the first reigning monarch of Canada to visit North America, although he had been to Canada previously as Prince Albert and as Duke of York. Both Governor General of Canada Lord Tweedsmuir and Mackenzie King hoped that the King’s presence in Canada would demonstrate the principles of the Statute of Westminster 1931, which gave full sovereignty to the British Dominions. (Read more in Wikipedia.)

George came to the throne after King Edward VIII abdicated to marry his mistress, Wallis Simpson. See their Karsh portrait.

On this day, May 10, in 1994, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa.

Mandela visited Canada three times, and it was on his first visit, in June of 1990, that he was photographed by Karsh, at the Chateau Laurier. Read about the Sitting.

According to the CBC, Mandela addressed a joint session of the House of Commons and the Senate in Ottawa and spoke at the Ontario legislature in Toronto.

“During his three-day visit, he also spoke to crowds in Toronto and Montreal. In a square behind Montreal City Hall, he told 20,000 people that “the catalogue of crimes committed by the apartheid system continues to grow.”

Four years after that visit, not only did Mandela vote for the first time, he was elected democratic South Africa’s first president.”

When Nelson Mandela died, at the end of 2013, the Estate was proud to work with Apple on their full page obituary. Read about it.

Yugoslav communist revolutionary and political leader, Josip Broz, died on this day, May 4, in 1980.

“Viewed as a unifying symbol, his internal policies maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. He gained further international attention as the chief leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, alongside Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.

“As the Communist Party was outlawed in Yugoslavia starting on 30 December 1920, Josip Broz took on many assumed names during his activity within the Party, including ‘Rudi’, ‘Walter’, and ‘Tito.'” (Read more: Wikipedia).

See more Karsh photographs of Tito.

On this day, April 26, in 1954, Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine began field trials.

“The polio vaccine field trials of 1954, sponsored by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes), are among the largest and most publicized clinical trials ever undertaken. Across the United States, 623 972 schoolchildren were injected with vaccine or placebo, and more than a million others participated as “observed” controls. The results, announced in 1955, showed good statistical evidence that Jonas Salk’s killed virus preparation was 80-90% effective in preventing paralytic poliomyelitis.” – National Institutes of Health.

President Franklin Roosevelt was diagnosed with polio in 1921 at the age of 39 and was left paralyzed from the waist down. He helped found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, in 1938.

Karsh photographed Jonas Salk in 1956 and 1991. See more.