I have spent a good bit of time over the last week trying to identify the following Joseph Papin drawings. Sara Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, and the Curator who facilitated our family’s donation of Joseph Papin’s courtroom drawings to the Library of Congress in 2015, identified the rocket as Juno I, the rocket that carried the first US satellite into space on January 31, 1958. Prior to her assistance, I had incorrectly thought these drawings were done at the Kennedy Space Center. However, the Juno I rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral – the Kennedy Space Center was not completed until July 1, 1962. “The Launch Operations Center was established [in July 1962], and by December 1963, it was renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center.” (https://www.nasa.gov/kennedy/)
“A Juno I bearing the letters “UE” (Redstone #29; see Jupiter C) successfully launched Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite. The Juno I was launched from Cape Canaveral Launch Pad 26A at 10:48 p.m. EST on January 31, 1958.” (Cliff Lethbridge, Juno I Fact Sheet, https://www.spaceline.org/cape…/juno-i-fact-sheet/)
The Juno I rocket on the launch pad without the satellite attached.
“Arguably one of the most significant space launch vehicles in the history of the U.S. space program, the Juno I was a modified Redstone MRBM [medium range ballistic missile] designed specifically to carry lightweight payloads into low-Earth orbit. Although the Juno I was nearly identical to the Jupiter C research rocket from which it was adapted, the names Juno I and Jupiter C should not be interchanged, as is frequently the case. The Jupiter C, or Jupiter “Composite”, was used exclusively to perform re-entry tests of Jupiter IRBM [intermediate range ballistic missile] nosecone technology. In this configuration, a powered fourth stage was not flown. Technically speaking, this made the Jupiter C a three-stage rocket. On the Juno I, an operational fourth stage was flown which remained attached to the satellite payload. Thus, Juno I is a name used to distinguish a vehicle used specifically to launch satellites.” (Cliff Lethbridge, Juno I Fact Sheet, https://www.spaceline.org/cape-canaveral-rocket-missile-program/juno-i-fact-sheet/)
I initially thought that the drawings were drawn on-the-scene due due to their loose and more sketchy style. However, being on-site at the first U.S. satellite to be launched would have been a very memorable assignment, and none of summaries of Joseph Papin’s work that he himself wrote mention it as an on-the-scene experience. Additionally, the satellite was launched in Florida at 10:48 pm, while a press conference was held in Washington DC at 2:00 am, only a little over three hours later. Joe Papin drew the launch and the personnel carrying out the launch located in Florida, and also drew the Secretary of the Army, Wilber Brucker, and top Army personnel gathering in the War Room prior to the press conference at 2:00 am located in Washington D.C. (https://www.spaceline.org/…/chronology-launch-explorer-i/). Cape Canaveral is about 865 miles (1,392 km) from Washington D.C. and therefore he could not have been at both events on the same night without access to a plane.
The drawing above includes two studies of Kurt Debus “second in command to von Braun” (inscription on the drawing). “Debus supervised development and construction of rocket launch facilities at Cape Canaveral for the Redstone, Jupiter, Jupiter C, Juno, and Pershing military configurations from 1952 to 1960, when the organization he directed transferred from the Army to NASA. Beginning in 1961, he directed the design, development, and construction of NASA’s Apollo/Saturn facilities on Cape Canaveral and the adjacent John F. Kennedy Space Center.” (https://www.nasa.gov/people/dr-kurt-h-debus/).
The drawing below includes Wilbur Brucker with several other people (labeled by Joseph Papin as W Brucker; additional pencil “Wilber Brucker” by a Papin family member. An article, “Celebrating 65 years of the Army in space: The launch of the Explorer I” (https://www.amcom.army.mil/…/celebrating-65-years-of…/), mentions both “the launch team in Florida” and [those] in the Pentagon War Room where Von Braun, Pickering, and Van Allen waited along with Secretary of the Army Wilbur M. Brucker and ‘a selected handful of generals and top Army scientists’.”
Once we had sorted out that it was very unlikely that he had been at the launch (he drew people that were in Florida at the launch as well as people in Washington D.C. while the launch was happening), his spouse immediately suggested that he might have been drawing from a news feed at the Army Pictorial Center. Joe Papin continued to do work for the Army Signal Corps after completing his service as the officer in charge of the animation department at the Army Pictorial Center (1955-1957), and indeed, I found information that the Signal Corps was quite involved in Explorer I satellite:
“Explorer, loaded with sophisticated electronic equipment – components of which had been developed by the Signal Corps – contributed greatly to the scientific knowledge obtained during the IGY {International Geophysical Year] by discovering the Van Allen radiation belt encircling the earth.” (https://www.history.army.mil/books/30-17/S_9.htm)
Finally, Joseph Papin’s first big job was for Harper’s Magazine, but it was not until the August issue of 1958 (“New York’s Gay Old Lady” by Ben Rathbun, drawings on-the-scene at the New York Times). The launch was at the end of January of 1958, about six months earlier.
So that’s the bulk of the puzzle solved! There are a few drawings that we have not identified to date – any thoughts are quite welcome!
Assembling a rocket (above); (below) perhaps someone wearing protective gear? I had initially thought that it might be a cleric but I think I was mistaken – protective gears makes a lot more sense.
And finally, two more rockets that I am unsure of. The one below: could it be the Juno I but with another side visible?
And the last drawing from this series:
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