Welcome to the new Joseph Papin Blog! Joseph Papin specialized in reportorial art – on-the-scene drawing – the artist as reporter. He illustrated Washington, covering legislation in the House and Senate, and all the activities of a Presidential inauguration. He covered most of the major U.S. trials for over two decades, the Watergate hearings, the United Nations, and a spectrum of events, large and small.
One of those events was the 15th United Nations General Assembly. Joseph Papin discussed it in an 1987 interview on New York and Company:
“I recall once applying for press credentials at the United Nations and the lady said, ‘I have 500 photographers, registered, what on earth do you think you can do?’ I said, ‘Madam, they are going to be up in the photo gallery. They’re all going to be confined, aren’t they.’ And she said, ‘Yes they are, with various lengths of telephoto lenses and so on.’ I said, ‘But in my mind, I can be anywhere on that floor, and by contrast alone my graphics are going to stand out.’ She said, ‘That’s good enough for me.’ And subsequently Business Week used it as a cover and five pages of drawings. So it was wonderful.” (Courtroom Art: An interview with Joseph Papin by Leonard Lopate, New York and Company, Aired on December 14, 1987).
(Joseph Papin cover, Business Week, October 1, 1960)
Excerpts from the article, Flashback To The Historic 15th UN General Assembly Session, by Mark Weisenmiller describes this particularly memorable UN session which began on September 20, 1960 (InDepthNews, 2019-12-07, https://indepthnews.net/flashback-to-the-historic-15th-un-general-assembly-session/):
“Never before in history had so many extraordinary historical and political leaders of a century been gathered in one place at the same time. … Thirty-two heads of state or government [were] present, by far the most at any one time in the history of the United Nations.”
“The weekly US news magazine ‘Time’ effusively wrote: ‘Not the pomp of ancient Rome or the jeweled brilliance of the great courts of France could shadow the moment. The eye of history could scarcely encompass the spectacle of so many potentates, presidents and dictators.’ The ‘New York Times’ less gushingly described the scene as ‘the most momentous diplomatic gathering in history.’”
“Frederick H. Bolan of Ireland [was] President of that General Assembly, and Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden [was] the then UN Secretary-General. Among others, the leaders included Dwight Eisenhower of the United States, Nikita Khrushchev of the then Soviet Union, Harold Macmillan of Great Britain, Gamal Nasser of Egypt, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Josip Tito of the then Yugoslavia, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Sukarno of Indonesia, Wladystaw Gomulka of Poland, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, John Diefenbaker of Canada, Robert Menzies of Australia and Janos Kadar of Hungary, not forgetting King Hussein I of Jordan; King Frederick IX of Denmark and Prince (later King) Sihanouk of Cambodia.” (https://indepthnews.net/flashback-to-the-historic-15th-un-general-assembly-session/).
Fidel Castro of Cuba casting the first vote.
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