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Derso and Kelen Collection
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
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.
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.
Emery Kelen's autobiography Peace in Their Time: Men Who Led Us In and Out of War, 1914-1945 (Knoft, New York, 1963) was consulted during preparation of the biographical note.
Betty and Juli Kelen, Emery Kelen's wife and daughter respectively, donated the collection in 2002(ML 2002-14) to the Princeton University Library. Additional materials were received from the Kelen family in 2007 (ML.2007.005).
Some drawings, lithographs, and watercolors have been cleaned and repaired by the Conservation and Preservation Department of the Princeton University Library.
This collection was processed by Christine W. Kitto in 2004 with the assistance of Debora Lin Class of 2004, Awo Addo Class of 2008, and Thomas Campana. Finding aid written by Christine W. Kitto in June 2005.Materials from a subsequent accession in 2007 were incorporated into the existing collection and the finding aid was updated at this time.
No material was separated from this collection.
People
- Acheson, Dean, 1893-1971.
- Adenauer, Konrad, 1876-1967.
- Attlee, C.R. (Clement Richard), 1883-1967
- Baruch, Bernard M. (Bernard Mannes), 1870-1965.
- Brezhnev, Leonid Ilʹich, 1906-1982
- Briand, Aristide, 1862-1932
- Bush, George, 1924-2018.
- Castro, Fidel, 1926-2016.
- Chamberlain, Neville, 1869-1940.
- Churchill, Winston, 1871-1947
- De Valera, Éamon, 1882-1975
- Deng, Xiaoping, 1904-1997.
- Dulles, John Foster, 1888-1959.
- Eden, Anthony, Earl of Avon, 1897-1977
- Eichmann, Adolf, 1906-1962.
- Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955.
- Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969
- Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939.
- Gandhi, Indira
- Gándhí, Mahátma, 1869-1948
- Gaulle, Charles de 1890-1970
- Goebbels, Joseph, 1897-1945.
- Goring, Hermann,
- Gromyko, Andreĭ Andreevich, 1909-1989
- Guevara, Che, 1928-1967
- Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, 1892-1975
- Hammarskjøld, Dag 1905-1961
- Harriman, W. Averell (William Averell), 1891-1986
- Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, 1901-1989
- Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945.
- Hồ, Chí-Minh, 1890-1969
- Home of the Hirsel, Alec Douglas-Home, baron, 1903-1995
- Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964
- Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973
- Kelen, Emery, 1896-1978
- Kennedy, John F. John Fitzgerald 1917-1963
- Kissinger, Henry, 1923-
- Kosygin, Aleksey Nikolayevich, 1904-1980
- Krushchev, Nikita
- Laval, Pierre (1883-1945)
- Lenin, Vladimir Ilʹich, 1870-1924
- Lie, Trygve, 1896-1968
- Lodge, Henry Cabot, 1850-1924
- Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron, 1803-1873.
- Macdonald, James Ramsay, 1866-1937
- Meir, Golda
- Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945.
- Nixon, Richard M. Richard Milhous 1913-1994
- Papen, Franz von 1879-1969
- Poincaré, Henri, 1854-1912.
- Ribbentrop, Joachim von 1893-1946
- Simon, John Allsebrook Simon, Viscount, 1873-1954
- Stalin, Joseph, 1878-1953.
- Stevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing), 1900-1965
- Stresemann, Gustav, 1878-1929
- Trotsky, Léon, 1879-1940
- Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972.
- Vyshinsky, Andrey Yanuaryevich, 1883-1954
- Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924.
- Young, Owen D., 1874-1962
Organization
- Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments (1932-1934 : Geneva, Switzerland)
- Conference on Near Eastern Affairs (1922-1923 : Lausanne, Switzerland)
- United Nations
- Republican Party. National Convention. (23rd : 1944 : Chicago)
- League of Nations.
- Locarno Conference (1925)
- Indian Round Table Conference
- Monetary and Economic Conference (1933 : London, England)
- New York World's Fair (1939-1940 : New-York, N.Y.)
- Lloyd George, David, 1863-1945.
Subject
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Author
- Christine W. Kitto
- Finding Aid Date
- 2007
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. For quotations that are fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For those few instances beyond fair use, any copyright vested in the donor has passed to Princeton University and researchers are free to move forward with use of materials without anything further from Mudd Library. For materials not created by the donor, where the copyright is not held by the University, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold the copyright and obtaining approval from them. In these instances, researchers do not need anything further from the Mudd Library to move forward with their use. If you have a question about who owns the copyright for an item, you may request clarification by contacting us through the Ask Us! form.
Collection Inventory
The Biographical Materials series contains newspaper articles about Derso and Kelen and other biographical ephemera like business cards, press passes, and advertisements for their syndicated cartoons and writings. Exhibition catalogs are included in this series. Of particular note is an essay written by Betty Kelen, Kelen's wife, providing a brief, but personal and humorous view of Derso and Kelen's friendship and artistic careers.
Arranged alphabetically by topic and then chronologically within each folder.
Physical Description1 box
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The Correspondence series consists primarily of personal letters each artist received from friends and colleagues and sometimes from publishers. Notably, the majority of the letters are written in Hungarian with a few letters in French, English and German.
The letters are arranged chronologically when the date is known.
Physical Description1 box
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The Writings series documents Derso and Kelen's secondary careers in writing, which began after World War II. Derso's writings consisted of a few essays published in the New York Times and a proposal for an 'art book' of portraits of Jewish statesmen, diplomats, and writers submitted to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany for which he received a fellowship. There is also a skeletal draft script for a motion picture on the history of the League of Nations.
Kelen's writing career, in contrast to Derso's, was more successful and ranged from publishing children's books and syndicated columns on famous people in politics and the entertainment world in newspapers to an early draft for a chapter of his autobiography, Peace in Their Time: Men Who Led Us In and Out of War, 1914-1945, published by Knopf in 1963.
All essays, stories, and drafts are arranged alphabetically by the title of the work under each artist's name.
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The Art Works series forms the bulk of this collection and consists of over 900 cartoons and caricatures created in simple media like pencil sketches or ink drawings to formal limited edition portfolios of lithographs or richly hued watercolors. The vast majority of the works were produced between 1920 and 1950, the active period of collaboration between Derso and Kelen. Once their artistic partnership ended in 1950, Kelen produced cartoons and drawings for United Nations' publications and his own personal book projects and Derso supplied the National Review with numerous portrait sketches for their articles.
The cartoons and caricatures have been grouped by size and then divided by theme, except in the instance of oversized materials which are organized by the title of the cartoon or caricature. One further exception is 8.5" x 11" portrait sketches which are arranged alphabetically in Subseries 4A: Portrait Sketches.
Physical Description30 boxes
The Portrait Sketches subseries consists primarily of single portrait sketches in ink or pencil, with a few portraits in ink and watercolor, arranged in alphabetical order according to the last name of the person portrayed. Derso and Kelen seemed to have illustrated every statesman, conference delegate, and dictator on the world stage between the World Wars capturing their countenances with humor and a bit of satire.
Portraits arranged alphabetically by last name.
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The Published Portfolios subseries consists of nine published portfolios of lithographs. Most of the portfolios were commercially printed like United Nations Sketchbook, however, a few were privately commissioned pieces of limited distribution like Derso's "The Young Plan and the Reparations" made for Owen D. Young and his friends in 1924.
The portfolios are arranged chronologically.
Physical Description11 boxes
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The Cartoons subseries consists primarily of political cartoons dating from approximately1920 to 1960 arranged by the following broad categories – European conferences, World War II as it relates to Europe, Asia, the United States, and the United Nations. Within the category of Europe and the War, there is a heavy emphasis on images of Hitler and Mussolini. Also, within the category for the United States are cartoons satirizing American politics in the 1940s.
The cartoons are arranged by subject and size.
Physical Description7 boxes
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This Publishing History subseries composed of Kelen's personal collection of published cartoons, newspaper clippings, and magazine covers and loose pages represents an incomplete publishing history of Derso and Kelen cartoons and caricatures. The handbill-like cartoons were printed by cartoon syndicates like the McClure Newspapers Syndicate, Edmond Pauker Inc., and the Overseas News Agency (ONA) and distributed to newspapers for publication. Many of these sample cartoons are not annotated though a few provide publishers' information. Ken magazine and single pages from the magazine in box 27 attests to the active relationship between the publication and the artists. KEN Magazine was a side project of Arnold Gingrich, founder and publisher of Esquire magazine, and was short-lived due to its "war-mongering" perspective. The folders of photocopied newspaper clippings concretely demonstrate the breath of American and international newspapers that distributed Derso and Kelen material.
Within the categories of loose magazine pages, cartoon samples, and photocopies of newspaper clippings, the items are arranged chronologically when known.
Physical Description5 boxes
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This Menu Cards series consists of menu cards created by Derso and Kelen for press luncheons in honor of the journalists accredited to the League of Nations from 1925 to 1937 and menu cards for social occasions or dinners honoring high level officials at the United Nations in the late 1940s and early 1950s. One menu card created for the first League luncheon in October 1925 that marked the conclusion of negotiations for the Treaty of Locarno is signed by each of the diplomats represented on the card. There are also 'cards in progress' with annotations and cut-and-paste elements by the artists.
Menu cards are arranged chronologically.
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The Miscellaneous series includes material not related to the other series in the Derso and Kelen Collection and contains photographs depicting the artists as well as some photoreproductions of their works. Of interest is a photograph of Derso and Kelen sitting with Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt as she admires the drawing of herself by Derso and Kelen that appeared in the United Nations Sketchbook. There is also a tattered copy of Modern Caricaturists by H. R. Westwood published in 1932 by L. Dickson, Ltd. that includes a chapter on Derso and Kelen. Another item in this series is a guest book from an exhibition in 1976.
Arranged alphabetically.
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The Oversize Cartoons series consists of oversize cartoons and illustrations listed by title. When known, the publishing history of the work is noted along with the date of the work and whether the work is monochromatic or color.
The cartoons are listed by title.
Physical Description1 folder
Pages 32-33, United Nations Sketchbook; "Original pencil study of a painting presented to Mr. Bernard Baruch by [two] Musketeers Derso and Kelen"
Physical Description1 folderBlack and White
Hotel du Palais Genève
Physical Description1 folderBlack and White
Hitler atop a totem pole; Mussolini pointing at map of Africa
Physical Description1 folderBrown Wash
Unemployed Kings: Don Juan of Spain, The Kaiser, The Kronprinz, Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia, Alfonso XIII, Otto Hapsburg
Physical Description1 folderGrey Wash
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Ken magazine, February 23, 1939
Physical Description1 folderColor
Chamberlain fitting Hitler for a coat
Physical Description1 folderColor
Approved Jan 10 1939 Harry Hibschman; Ken magazine, Februrary 9, 1939
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Déjeuner de L'Association des Journalistes
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Ken magazine, ?, 14, 1938
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Page 93, United Nations Sketchbook
Physical Description1 folderColor
Approved Mar 15, 1939 Harry Hibschman
Physical Description1 folderColor
from Pages Glorieuses (Days of Hope and Glory); Geneva Disarmament Conference
Physical Description1 folderColor
General Winter/ General Mud
Physical Description1 folderBlack and White
1 folderColor
1944 Republican Convention; Fortune magazine, Sept 1944
Physical Description1 folderColor
Hitler as Gulliver gazing at Mussolini who sits on his upturned hand; Ken magazine, March 1938
Physical Description1 folderColor
Hitler, Mussolini, and Chamberlain measuring the map of Africa
Physical Description1 folderBlack and White
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Ken magazine, October 20, 1938
Physical Description1 folderBlack and White
"Ben Hitler"
Physical Description1 folderBlack and White
Page 67, United Nations Sketchbook
Physical Description1 folderColor
Ken magazine, July 28, 1938
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Ken magazine, Sept 1938
Physical Description1 folderColor
Living Space/ Libenstraum
Physical Description1 folderColor
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Pages 28-29, United Nations Sketchbook
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Page 71, United Nations Sketchbook
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the world coming after Hitler
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World Economic Conference, London
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World Economic and Monetary Conference
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Geneva
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Page 89, United Nations Sketchbook
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Hitler and Yugoslavia
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Pages 84-85, United Nations Sketchbook
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World Economic and Monetary Conference, London
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world leaders at a carnival
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Ken magazine March 9, 1939
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Ethiopia and Haile Selassie
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London Naval Conference
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Ken magazine
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signed by Artistide Briand, Austen Chamberlain
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Le Testament de Genève, 1925 Pact of Locarno
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Pages 82-83, United Nations Sketchbook
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To Phillis & Albert Glenn
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Page 39, United Nations Sketchbook
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Ken magazine
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two diplomats juggling on the United Nations stage
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Page 29, Le Testament de Genève
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chess game
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Page 68, United Nations Sketchbook
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Fortune Magazine, 1943
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Ken magazine
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Pages 94-95, United Nations Sketchbook
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from Pages Glorieuses/ Days of Hope and Glory; Geneva Disarmament Conference
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Acheson v. Vishinsky
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Hitler, Mussolini, Spain as a bull
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Ken magazine, December 1, 1938
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1938-1939 Ken magazine
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Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito on a match
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German soldiers marching into Paris
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sinking ships
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Hitler
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planes over city
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U.N.
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unidentified man at microphone
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verso - man holding a top hat
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at the bar
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verso - What?!! A New Symbol in the Middle East?
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Laval and an hourglass
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Hitler throwing a bomb
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Red Coach Tavern
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gigantic robotic machine standing behind Hitler
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Hitler
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German soldier and the Statue of Liberty
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Ken magazine
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Hitler and Mussolini watching a bucking bronco
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1 folderJune 15, 1941
Daner/Victoire
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two diplomats
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Vincennes
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unfinished menu sketch
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unfinished menu sketch, galloping horses
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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Ken magazine
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newspaper, Geneve
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The Hindu Weekly magazine
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1 folderPencil)
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Page 72, U. N. Sketchbook, "David and Goliath
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Page 35, U. N. Sketchbook, "Is It a Bird? Is It a Man? No! Superman!"
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Page 90, U. N. Sketchbook, "China Incident"
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The material added to the original donation represents an expansion of the established series. Of note is the greatly expanded series of published and unpublished writings almost exclusively by Kelen and ranging in date from 1950 to 1975. The writings include proposals and manuscripts for unpublished illustrated books, newspapers columns, and short essays and manuscripts for published works including Peace in Their Time and the newspaper column, On Second Thought.
There are 200 portrait sketches added to the 'Portrait Sketches' subseries of the 'Art Work' series and many new syndicated cartoons on the theme of Hitler in Europe added to the 'Cartoons' subseries.
The two new subseries within 'Art Works' include 'Sketchbooks' and 'Children's Book Illustrations.' Kelen carried stenographer's notebooks to the early conferences and meetings that led to the establishment of the United Nations and recorded on the spot drawings of the participants. In the 1960s, Kelen began writing and illustrating children's books for the Unted Nations and drafts and illustrations for these books, both published and unpublished, are also part of the 2007 donation.
This series is arranged by type of material: biographical, correspondence, writings, art works, and miscellaneous.
Physical Description33 boxes
Subject files arranged alphabetically under each author's name.
This 'Biographical Materials' subseries contains information about Derso and Kelen's exhibitions in Europe (London, 1934 and Budapest, 1976), business dealings with book and newspaper publishers, and extensive information on the disposition of the Derso and Kelen body of work by Betty Kelen. There are also fairly complete inventory lists of artworks compiled by Kelen and a list with commentary by a New York appraiser.
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The 'Correspondence' subseries contains Kelens correspondence, both personal and with his publishers.
The Correspondence subseries is divided between personal and publisher's correspondence and then chronologically within each file.
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The Writings subseries is divided into three categories and then arranged alphabetically by title within each category.
This subseries represents a substantial portion of the 2007 donation and comprises the writings, published and unpublished, of Derso and Kelen. The distinction between 'Book Suggestions' and 'Unpublished Works' was determined by the author. Kelen designated a certain grouping of his unpublished works specifically as 'book suggestions.' In the unpublished/book suggestions categories, some writings are typescripts and ready for presentation to a publisher while others are in a less formal state; basically hand-written rough drafts.
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Divided into 5 sections: Portrait Sketches, Cartoons, Publishing History, Sketch Books, and Children's Book Illustrations
There are two new entries into the 'Art Works' sub-series, 'Sketchbooks' and 'Children's Book Illustrations.' Kelen carried stenographer's notebooks to the early conferences and meetings that led to the establishment of the United Nations and recorded on the spot drawings of the participants in these notebooks which he later referred to when completing a formal portrait sketch. In the 1960s, Kelen began writing and illustrating children's books for the United Nations and drafts and illustrations for these books, both published and unpublished, are part of the 2007 added materials.
There are 200 newportrait sketches added to the 'Portrait Sketches' sub-series of the 'Art Works' series and many new syndicated cartoons on the theme of Hitler in Europe added to the 'Cartoons' sub-series.
Physical Description6 boxes
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