Dag Hammarskjöld was born on July 29, in 1905 (d. 1961). He was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death – Hammarskjöld’s second term was cut short when he died in a plane crash in 1961 while en route to cease-fire negotiations during the “Congo Crisis” between 1960 and 1965. After Hammarskjöld’s death, U.S. president John F. Kennedy regretted that he had opposed UN policy in the Congo and said: “I realize now that in comparison to him, I am a small man. He was the greatest statesman of our century.”

This portrait was recently published in the Companion to The Robert and Kerstin Adams Photography Collection at the Denver Art Museum.