Call Number:

MC205

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers

Extent:

• 68 boxes
• 1 folder

Language:

English, French, German, and Hungarian

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Derso and Kelen Collection, Box and Folder Number; Public Policy Papers, Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1922-1982 (inclusive) and 1922-1970 (bulk)

Creator:

Derso, Alois (1888) and Kelen, Emery (1896-1978)

Form:

Ink Drawings., Lithographs., and Water Colors.

Abstract:

The Derso and Kelen Collection consists of correspondence, writings, published material, and over 900 cartoons and caricatures in varying media ranging from pencil sketches and ink drawings to richly-hued watercolors and limited edition lithographic portfolios created by the Hungarian caricaturists and political satirists Alois Derso and Emery Kelen. The vast majority of the works were produced between 1920 and 1950, the active period of collaboration between Derso and Kelen.

Emery Kelen was born in Györ, Hungary in 1896. He attended art school in Vienna, but with the onset of World War I was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army at the age of 19. He witnessed war firsthand at the battle of the Isonzo River near the Austrian-Italian border in 1917, which contributed to his enduring hatred of war. Kelen contracted typhus while on the battlefield and was sent to a hospital in Croatia to recover. He was ordered back to the front after he recovered, but, overwhelmed by his war experience, Kelen was sent to the Klosterka military insane hospital in Nagyzombat, Hungary. At Klosterka, he returned to drawing by sketching portraits of the insane and in his autobiography, Peace In Their Time, refers to Klosterka as his "academy of caricature."

Kelen returned to his hometown at the end of the war, but moved to Paris and then to Munich in 1919. While in Munich he worked as a sports cartoonist for Fussball and attended the art school of Hans Hofmann (1880-1966). In 1922, Kelen moved to Lausanne, Switzerland to continue his career in sports illustration. Gradually, due to his interest in history and politics, he turned his pen to freelance artwork illustrating the political and diplomatic scene.

Kelen met Alois Derso in 1922 at a chance meeting at a press bar in Lausanne. Sharing similar biographical backgrounds, both being Jews from Hungary and artists, they became friends and collaborators for the next 30 years – the first twenty years in Europe and the last ten years in the United States.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Kelen and Derso worked in Europe illustrating inter-war Europe with their cartoons. As witnesses to this history, they drew caricatures of famous diplomats and statesmen of the day and satirical cartoons of their activities. They traveled to the major European capitals observing the numerous economic, disarmament, and peace conferences (the 1925 Locarno Conference, the 1933 London Economic Conference, the 1932 World Disarmament Conference); they were also the dedicated pictorial reporters of the meetings and delegates of the League of Nations. As active members of the international press corps, their work was eagerly sought after providing a humorous daily record of events at a time when cameras were not allowed in the conference rooms. Their work was published widely in the European print media ( Illustrated London News; London News Chronicle; Le Rire; Tribune de Genève; Münchner Illustrierte Zeitung) and in 1934 they also mounted two exhibits of their works – one in London and the other in Geneva. In these decades most of their lithographic portfolios were either commissioned pieces like the "Round Table Conference" portfolio commissioned by the Maharaja of Kashmir or commercially released portfolios like the "Testament de Genève" that illustrated and commented upon ten years of 'international cooperation' at the League of Nations.

Kelen and Derso departed Europe on December 13, 1938 aided by friends who recognized the impending dangers facing them due to their Jewish heritage not to mention their open criticism of Hitler's rise to power. They settled in New York City making their living from a variety of commissions offered by magazines and newspapers. One of the cartoonists' contacts in New York was the editor of Esquire magazine, Arnold Gingrich, who was ready to embark on a new political publication entitled KEN. Though a short-lived magazine, Kelen and Derso were steady contributors illustrating for the American public the devastating aggression of Hitler. Other editors of prominent publications such as Fortune and the Christian Science Monitor sent Kelen and Derso to capture through illustrations the events of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, the 1944 Republican Convention in Philadelphia, and the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco. Their political cartoons were syndicated and published in major U. S. newspapers and magazines such as Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, Ken, the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, Fortune, the New York Post, the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post). At times Kelen and Derso drew editorial cartoons for publications for the French, Polish, and Yugoslavian governments-in-exile. With the end of World War II, they turned their pens to the subjects of American politics and the formation and proceedings of the United Nations. As Kelen wrote in their 1950 publication, The United Nations Sketchbook, Derso and I "followed the peace junket through Locarno, Rapallo, The Hague, Paris, London, Washington, and New York, to jibe, joke, jollify, and so make a poor living."

By the late 1940s, Kelen and Derso parted company professionally. From 1948 -1956, Kelen worked for the Office of Public Information at the United Nations as its first television director and producer covering many historic speeches before the General Assembly including President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech. Kelen published a number of books on a wide range of topics from a humorous commentary on world politics to a biography of Dag Hammarskjöld as well as numerous children's books. After retirement, Kelen wrote character studies of prominent people titled "Written In His Face" for European newspapers and a column of reminiscences for The Hindu of Madras. In 1963, he published his autobiography Peace In Their Time. Kelen married Betty Stones on September 25, 1940; they had one child, Juli Kelen. Kelen died on October 12, 1978 in Vienna, Austria.

Though the record of Derso's early life is not well documented, it seems remarkably similar to Kelen's. Derso was born in Baja, Hungary in 1888. He attended art school at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1908-1909. From 1909 through 1914 he studied at the Academy Colarossi and the Academy Grande Chaumière in Paris. According to the memoir essay written by Betty Kelen, Derso "was employed in the war by the Austro-Hungarian High Command as a church robber." He was to search the churches of conquered territory in northern Italy to evaluate the art work and "arrange for items worth stealing to be brought back to the homeland for safe keeping." After the war he was drawn to Switzerland for the same reason as Kelen's -- to pursue a career in pictorial journalism. Much of Derso's biography in the twenties and thirties corresponds to Kelen's story as once they became friends and artistic colleagues they traveled and worked in tandem.

In the early 1950s, while Kelen worked at the United Nations, Derso became a frequent contributor of portrait illustrations of politicians and policy makers for William F. Buckley's National Review, from its inaugural issue in 1955 until Derso's death in 1964; many of these portraits are in this collection. He also published his work in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Post. In 1959, Derso was awarded a fellowship from the 'Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany' to produce a book with the tentative title of "Jewish Profiles of Four Decades on the International Scene." Derso hoped to publish an art book of 100 portraits of Jewish statesmen, diplomats, writers, artists, scientists and bankers, but, ultimately, did not pursue the fellowship.

Derso never married and died in 1964 in New York City.

Bernard M. Baruch, a financier and public adviser, was a millionaire by the age of thirty, thanks to his investments in the stock market. He put his wealth to use in politics and public affairs and became an adviser to Woodrow Wilson, who appointed him chairman of the War Industries Board and a member of the president's war council. After World War I, he took part in the postwar peace conference and later became an adviser to President Roosevelt on defense matters and industrial preparedness for war. After World War II, President Truman appointed him ambassador to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

Born on August 13, 1926, Fidel Castro is a Cuban revolutionary leader who led his country from January 1959 until his resignation in February 2008.

John Foster Dulles (1888-1959), the fifty-third Secretary of State of the United States for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, had a long and distinguished public career with significant impact upon the formulation of United States foreign policies. He was especially involved with efforts to establish world peace after World War I, the role of the United States in world governance, and Cold War relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Dulles was born on February 25, 1888 in Washington, D.C. to Allen Macy Dulles and Edith Foster. He attended Princeton University, graduating in 1908. During this time, he had his first experience with foreign affairs, serving as secretary to his grandfather, John Watson Foster, during the Second Hague Peace Conference in 1907. After graduation, he studied philosophy and international law for a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, and then attended the George Washington University Law School, earning his LL.B. in 1911. Dulles married Janet Avery on June 26, 1912 and they had two sons, John Walsh and Avery, and one daughter, Lilias Pomeroy (Mrs. Robert Hinshaw).

After his graduation from law school, Dulles joined the prestigious New York law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, which specialized in international law. He worked there from 1911 to 1949, rising to become a senior partner. During World War I, Dulles served as assistant to the chairman of the War Trade Board, and then as counsel to the reparations section of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, and as a member of the American delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, serving as Bernard Baruch's chief legal advisor on the Reparations Commission and also serving on the Supreme Economic Council. After returning to Sullivan and Cromwell, he continued to be active in organizations concerned with world affairs, and to express his views on the United States' role in the world through speeches, articles, and the book War, Peace and Change published in 1939. In 1941 he accepted the chairmanship of the Commission to Study the Bases of a Just and Durable Peace, established by the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. Dulles presented their "Six Pillars of Peace" plan to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943, as a plan for establishing international cooperation for peace. Throughout his career, Dulles continued to be a prominent lay spokesman for the Protestant church.

Dulles became increasingly involved in politics at the onset of the Cold War. He represented the United States at the San Francisco organizational conference for the United Nations in 1945, and in many subsequent sessions of the United Nations General Assembly. He served as New York's junior senator from 1949 to 1950, replacing Senator Robert F. Wagner, who resigned due to ill health. Dulles then served as special representative of President Truman, with the rank of ambassador, negotiating the Japanese Peace Treaty of 1951 and the Australian, New Zealand, Philippine and Japanese Security Treaties of 1950-1951. During his negotiations, he observed the growing antagonism between the United States and Soviet Union which subsequently hardened his anti-Communist stance.

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Dulles Secretary of State. His tenure was marked by a close working relationship with the President, staunch anti-Communism, and a philosophy of "collective security" which led to numerous mutual defense treaties. Recognizing that NATO would only provide for the defense of Western Europe, Dulles initiated the Manila Conference in 1954 that resulted in the formation of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO), an agreement between eight nations for the defense of Southeast Asia, and was influential in establishing the 1955 Baghdad Pact for the defense of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan. He was also known for enunciating a policy of "massive retaliation," whereby any attack on U.S. interests anywhere in the world by the Soviet Union or China would be met with an attack on those countries, including the possible use of nuclear weapons.

Several notable international events marked Dulles's tenure. In 1955, in an effort to induce President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt to support the West, Dulles offered to provide financing for the construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River to produce electrical power and for irrigation. However, Dulles withdrew the offer in July 1956 after receiving protests from United States cotton interests and Jewish-Americans, and after Nasser purchased weapons from Czechoslovakia, suggesting he was aligning with the Soviets. Nasser responded by nationalizing the British-owned Suez Canal. Without notifying the United States, Britain, France and Israel invaded Egypt in October 1956 but failed to capture the canal. Dulles condemned the action at the United Nations, and under economic pressure from the United States, the allies withdrew by early 1957.

Concurrent with the Suez crisis, an uprising in Hungary resulted in the establishment of a new government committed to withdrawing the country from the Warsaw Pact. The Soviets responded with military force, leading the Hungarians to appeal to the United Nations for aid, pleas that were ignored, allowing the Soviets to subsequently crush the revolt and maintain their grip on Eastern Europe.

In 1958, tensions between Communist China and Taiwan threatened to break out into war when Communist China renewed their shelling of the islands of Jinmen and Mazu and the United States avowed not to appease Mao Zedong. Dulles convinced Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek to renounce the use of force against mainland China and to withdraw some troops from Jinmen and Mazu, and the Chinese ceased their shelling. Also in 1958, the Soviets threatened to sign a peace treaty with East Germany, terminating the joint occupation of Germany established after World War II, unless a satisfactory agreement was reached within six months. In what would be his last international trip as Secretary of State, Dulles traveled to Europe to reassure Chancellor Konrad Adenauer that the United States would maintain its commitment to West Germany. Eventually, the Soviets agreed to negotiate without a deadline.

Stricken with cancer, Dulles resigned as Secretary of State in April of 1959. He died on May 24, 1959 in Washington, D.C.

Albert Einstein was engaged by Kaizosha, the Japanese publishing house, to present a series of scientific and popular lectures on relativity. From Nov. 17, 1922, to Dec. 29, 1922, Einstein toured Japan, giving these lectures and performing official engagements. His trip at the time was described as a "triumphal progress."

Biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) was the 34th President of the United States. Her served as President from 1953 to 1961.

Dag Hammarskjöld was born on 29 July 1905 in Jönköping, Sweden, and died 18 September 1961 near Ndola, in Northern Rhodesia. He was a Swedish economist and statesman who served as the second secretary-general of the United Nations (1953-1961), during which time he enhanced the prestige and effectiveness of the UN. Hammarskjöld was posthumously awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1961.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was a German dictator and author.

Emery Kelen was born in Györ, Hungary in 1896. He attended art school in Vienna, but with the onset of World War I was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army at the age of 19. He witnessed war firsthand at the battle of the Isonzo River near the Austrian-Italian border in 1917, which contributed to his enduring hatred of war. Kelen contracted typhus while on the battlefield and was sent to a hospital in Croatia to recover. He was ordered back to the front after he recovered, but, overwhelmed by his war experience, Kelen was sent to the Klosterka military insane hospital in Nagyzombat, Hungary. At Klosterka, he returned to drawing by sketching portraits of the insane and in his autobiography, Peace In Their Time, refers to Klosterka as his "academy of caricature."

Kelen returned to his hometown at the end of the war, but moved to Paris and then to Munich in 1919. While in Munich he worked as a sports cartoonist for Fussball and attended the art school of Hans Hofmann (1880-1966). In 1922, Kelen moved to Lausanne, Switzerland to continue his career in sports illustration. Gradually, due to his interest in history and politics, he turned his pen to freelance artwork illustrating the political and diplomatic scene.

Kelen met Alois Derso in 1922 at a chance meeting at a press bar in Lausanne. Sharing similar biographical backgrounds, both being Jews from Hungary and artists, they became friends and collaborators for the next 30 years – the first twenty years in Europe and the last ten years in the United States.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Kelen and Derso worked in Europe illustrating inter-war Europe with their cartoons. As witnesses to this history, they drew caricatures of famous diplomats and statesmen of the day and satirical cartoons of their activities. They traveled to the major European capitals observing the numerous economic, disarmament, and peace conferences (the 1925 Locarno Conference, the 1933 London Economic Conference, the 1932 World Disarmament Conference); they were also the dedicated pictorial reporters of the meetings and delegates of the League of Nations. As active members of the international press corps, their work was eagerly sought after providing a humorous daily record of events at a time when cameras were not allowed in the conference rooms. Their work was published widely in the European print media ( Illustrated London News; London News Chronicle; Le Rire; Tribune de Genève; Münchner Illustrierte Zeitung) and in 1934 they also mounted two exhibits of their works – one in London and the other in Geneva. In these decades most of their lithographic portfolios were either commissioned pieces like the "Round Table Conference" portfolio commissioned by the Maharaja of Kashmir or commercially released portfolios like the "Testament de Genève" that illustrated and commented upon ten years of 'international cooperation' at the League of Nations.

Kelen and Derso departed Europe on December 13, 1938 aided by friends who recognized the impending dangers facing them due to their Jewish heritage not to mention their open criticism of Hitler's rise to power. They settled in New York City making their living from a variety of commissions offered by magazines and newspapers. One of the cartoonists' contacts in New York was the editor of Esquire magazine, Arnold Gingrich, who was ready to embark on a new political publication entitled KEN. Though a short-lived magazine, Kelen and Derso were steady contributors illustrating for the American public the devastating aggression of Hitler. Other editors of prominent publications such as Fortune and the Christian Science Monitor sent Kelen and Derso to capture through illustrations the events of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, the 1944 Republican Convention in Philadelphia, and the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco. Their political cartoons were syndicated and published in major U. S. newspapers and magazines such as Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, Ken, the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, Fortune, the New York Post, the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post). At times Kelen and Derso drew editorial cartoons for publications for the French, Polish, and Yugoslavian governments-in-exile. With the end of World War II, they turned their pens to the subjects of American politics and the formation and proceedings of the United Nations. As Kelen wrote in their 1950 publication, The United Nations Sketchbook, Derso and I "followed the peace junket through Locarno, Rapallo, The Hague, Paris, London, Washington, and New York, to jibe, joke, jollify, and so make a poor living."

By the late 1940s, Kelen and Derso parted company professionally. From 1948 -1956, Kelen worked for the Office of Public Information at the United Nations as its first television director and producer covering many historic speeches before the General Assembly including President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech. Kelen published a number of books on a wide range of topics from a humorous commentary on world politics to a biography of Dag Hammarskjöld as well as numerous children's books. After retirement, Kelen wrote character studies of prominent people titled "Written In His Face" for European newspapers and a column of reminiscences for The Hindu of Madras. In 1963, he published his autobiography Peace In Their Time. Kelen married Betty Stones on September 25, 1940; they had one child, Juli Kelen. Kelen died on October 12, 1978 in Vienna, Austria.

Though the record of Derso's early life is not well documented, it seems remarkably similar to Kelen's. Derso was born in Baja, Hungary in 1888. He attended art school at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1908-1909. From 1909 through 1914 he studied at the Academy Colarossi and the Academy Grande Chaumière in Paris. According to the memoir essay written by Betty Kelen, Derso "was employed in the war by the Austro-Hungarian High Command as a church robber." He was to search the churches of conquered territory in northern Italy to evaluate the art work and "arrange for items worth stealing to be brought back to the homeland for safe keeping." After the war he was drawn to Switzerland for the same reason as Kelen's -- to pursue a career in pictorial journalism. Much of Derso's biography in the twenties and thirties corresponds to Kelen's story as once they became friends and artistic colleagues they traveled and worked in tandem.

In the early 1950s, while Kelen worked at the United Nations, Derso became a frequent contributor of portrait illustrations of politicians and policy makers for William F. Buckley's National Review, from its inaugural issue in 1955 until Derso's death in 1964; many of these portraits are in this collection. He also published his work in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Post. In 1959, Derso was awarded a fellowship from the 'Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany' to produce a book with the tentative title of "Jewish Profiles of Four Decades on the International Scene." Derso hoped to publish an art book of 100 portraits of Jewish statesmen, diplomats, writers, artists, scientists and bankers, but, ultimately, did not pursue the fellowship.

Derso never married and died in 1964 in New York City.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson, governor of Illinois (1949-1953), Democratic candidate for President in 1952 and 1956, and United States ambassador to the United Nations (1961-1965), was born in Los Angeles, California on February 5, 1900, the son of Lewis G. Stevenson and Helen Davis Stevenson. He grew up in Bloomington, Illinois, where his ancestors had been influential in local and national politics since the nineteenth century. Jesse Fell, his maternal great-grandfather, a prominent Republican and an early Lincoln supporter, founded the Daily Pantagraph, a Bloomington newspaper. His paternal grandfather, Adlai E. Stevenson, served as Grover Cleveland's Vice President during his second term, was nominated for the office with William Jennings Bryan in 1900, and ran unsuccessfully for Illinois governor in 1908.

Stevenson attended preparatory school at Choate and went on to Princeton University, where he served as managing editor of the Daily Princetonian and was a member of the Quadrangle Club. He graduated in 1922 and matriculated at Harvard University Law School. However, in July 1924, he returned to Bloomington to work as assistant managing editor of the Daily Pantagraph while the Illinois courts probated his grandfather's will, determining share ownership of the newspaper. While working at the newspaper, Stevenson reentered law school at Northwestern University, and in 1926, graduated and passed the Illinois State Bar examination. He obtained a position at Cutting, Moore and Sidley, an old and conservative Chicago law firm, and became a popular member of Chicago's social scene. In 1928, he married Ellen Borden, a wealthy Chicago socialite. They had three sons: Adlai E. Stevenson III (1930-); Borden Stevenson (1932-); and John Fell Stevenson (1936-). The couple divorced in 1949.

In the early 1930s, Stevenson began his involvement in government service. In July 1933, he became special attorney and assistant to Jerome Frank, general counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) in Washington, D. C. In 1934, after the repeal of Prohibition, Stevenson joined the staff of the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA) as chief attorney. A subsidiary of the AAA, the FACA regulated the activities of the alcohol industry. He returned to Chicago and the practice of law in 1935. During this time, Stevenson also became involved in civic activities, particularly as chairman of the Chicago branch of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies (known often as the White Committee, in honor of its founder, William Allen White). The Stevenson's purchased a seventy-acre tract of land on the Des Plaines River near Libertyville, Illinois where they built a house. Although he spent comparatively little time at Libertyville, Stevenson considered the farm home.

In 1940, Colonel Frank Knox, newly appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy, offered Stevenson a position as his special assistant. In this capacity, Stevenson wrote speeches, represented Secretary Knox and the Navy on committees, toured the various theatres of war, and handled many administrative duties. From December 1943 to January 1944, he participated in a special mission to Sicily and Italy for the Foreign Economic Administration to report on the country's economy. After Knox's death in 1944, Stevenson returned to Chicago and attempted to purchase Knox's controlling interest in the Chicago Daily News, but another party outbid his syndicate.

After the war, he accepted an appointment as special assistant to the Secretary of State to work with Assistant Secretary of State Archibald MacLeish on a proposed world organization. Later that year, he went to London as Deputy United States Delegate to the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Organization, a position he held until February 1946. In 1947, Louis A. Kohn, a Chicago attorney, suggested to Stevenson that he consider running for political office. Stevenson, who had toyed with the idea of entering politics for several years, entered the Illinois gubernatorial race and defeated incumbent Dwight H. Green in a landslide. Principal among his achievements as Illinois governor were reorganizing the state police, cracking down on illegal gambling, and improving the state highways.

Early in 1952, while Stevenson was still governor of Illinois, President Harry S. Truman proposed that he seek the Democratic nomination for president. In a fashion that was to become his trademark, Stevenson at first hesitated, arguing that he was committed to running for a second gubernatorial term. Despite his protestations, the delegates drafted him and he accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with a speech that according to contemporaries, "electrified the nation." He chose John J. Sparkman, an Alabama Senator, as his running mate. Stevenson's distinctive speaking style quickly earned him the reputation of an intellectual and endeared him to many Americans, while simultaneously alienating him from others. His Republican opponent, enormously popular World War II hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower, defeated Stevenson. Following his defeat, prior to returning to law practice, Stevenson travelled throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe, writing about his travels for Look magazine. Although he was not sent as an official emissary of the U.S. government, Stevenson's international reputation gave him entree to many foreign officials.

Back in the United States, Stevenson resumed his desultory practice of law. His national reputation, earned through his presidential campaign, made Stevenson a celebrity attorney who could pick and choose his clients. He accepted numerous speaking engagements and raised funds for the Democratic National Party, then suffering from an $800,000 deficit. Many Democratic leaders considered Stevenson the only natural choice for the presidential nomination in 1956 and his chances for victory seemed greater after Eisenhower's heart attack late in 1955. Although his candidacy was challenged by Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver and New York Governor W. Averell Harriman, Stevenson campaigned more aggressively to secure the nomination, and Kefauver conceded after losing a few key primaries. To Stevenson's dismay, former president Harry S. Truman endorsed Harriman, but the blow was softened by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt's continued support. Stevenson again won the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He permitted the convention delegates to choose Estes Kefauver as his running mate, despite stiff competition from John F. Kennedy. However, Stevenson's best campaign efforts could not overcome the popularity of incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower. On November 6, 1956, Stevenson was again defeated by Eisenhower, this time by a larger margin.

Despite his two defeats, Stevenson remained enormously popular with the American people. Early in 1957, Stevenson resumed law practice with associates W. Willard Wirtz, William McC. Blair, Jr. and Newton Minow. He also accepted an appointment on the new Democratic Advisory Council, with other prominent Democrats, including Harry S. Truman, David L. Lawrence, and John F. Kennedy. He continued to serve on the board of trustees of the Encyclopedia Brittanica and to act as their legal counsel.

Prior to the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Stevenson announced that he was not seeking the Democratic nomination for president, but would accept another draft. Because he still hoped to be a candidate, Stevenson refused to give the nominating address for relative newcomer John F. Kennedy, a cause for future strained relations between the two politicians. Once Kennedy won the nomination, Stevenson – always an enormously popular public speaker – campaigned actively for him. Due to his two presidential nominations and previous United Nations experience, Stevenson perceived himself as an elder statesman and a natural choice for Secretary of State, an opinion shared by many.

In December 1960, Kennedy offered Stevenson the position of United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Stevenson refused to accept or decline the ambassadorship until Kennedy named the Secretary of State, deepening the rift between them. After Kennedy appointed Dean Rusk as Secretary of State, Stevenson accepted the U.N. ambassadorship. Although he was initially insulted by the offer, once he accepted the appointment, Stevenson devoted himself wholeheartedly to his responsibilities. He served as president of the Security Council and advocated arms control and improved relations with the new nations of Africa. He established residency in an apartment at the Waldorf Astoria, and threw himself into the busy social scene of the city.

In April 1961, Stevenson suffered the greatest humiliation of his career. After an attack against Fidel Castro's communist forces at the Bay of Pigs, Stevenson unwittingly disputed allegations that the attack was financed and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, claiming instead that the anti-Communist forces were supported by wealthy Cuban emigres. When Stevenson learned that he had been misled by the White House, and even supplied with CIA-forged photographs, he considered resigning the ambassadorship, but was convinced not to do so. During the summer of 1961, Stevenson toured Latin America, trying to convince leaders that Castro was a threat to all of Latin America as well as to the United States. Just a year later, in October 1962, Stevenson demonstrated his seasoned statesmanship during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the United States discovered offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba, Stevenson confronted Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin in an emergency meeting of the Security Council, challenging him to admit that the offensive weapons had been placed in Cuba and that he was prepared to wait "until Hell freezes over" for Zorin's answer.

In 1964, increasingly disillusioned with his inability to participate in the formulation of policy at the United Nations, Stevenson considered running for the U. S. Senate from New York, and was also regarded as a possible running mate for President Lyndon B. Johnson. In late 1964 and 1965, Stevenson and Secretary General U Thant began to discuss opening negotiations to end the war in Vietnam, although Stevenson publicly backed Johnson's Vietnam policies. Amid much speculation that he was considering resigning his post, Stevenson addressed the Economic and Social Council in Geneva in July 1965. During a stop in London, Stevenson died suddenly on July 14, 1965. Following memorial services in Washington, D.C. and Springfield and Bloomington, Illinois, Stevenson was interred in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery, Bloomington, Illinois.

The Derso and Kelen Collection consists of over 1100 lithographs, watercolors and pen and ink drawings representing the wide-ranging artistic work and political commentary of Alois Derso and Emery Kelen. The subject of their political reportage focuses on the events of inter-war Europe with a particular emphasis on international politics, the diplomatic scene, and the rise of Adolf Hitler. The many open-diplomacy conferences in the 1920s and 1930s on peace, economics, and disarmament, the assemblies of the League of Nations in its hey-day, and, after World War II, the formation of the United Nations are also frequently illustrated subjects.

While the majority of the collection consists of art works, there are also satirical newspaper articles and essays written by Kelen and Derso as well as a small amount of biographical information.

Please see series descriptions in contents list for additional information about individual series.