Leaders of the Allied nations met in late November, 1943 to make plans for their alliance. Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Chiang Kai-Shek met in Cairo to discuss efforts against Japan; the Soviet Union did not attend as they were not then at war with Japan. Several days later, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Joseph Stalin of the U.S.S.R. met in Tehran, the first meeting of the ‘big three’ Allied leaders. The major outcome of the meeting was the opening of a second front against Nazi Germany.
The collection consists of a small number of what appear to be press photographs from the November 1943 Cairo Conference and the Tehran Conference, where the leaders of the Allied nations met. The world leaders are depicted numerous times. All images are slightly over 2”x3”, and are black and white.
The majority of the Cairo images are of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Kai-Shek. Soong Mei-Ling (Madame Chiang Kai-Shek) is also present. One image of Churchill’s inspection of his old regiment, the Fourth Hussars, is also included.
Similarly, the majority of the Tehran images are of those Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin at the Soviet embassy. Included is an image from the presentation of the Sword of Stalingrad to Stalin, and another of Churchill reviewing Sikh troops.
In one of the three unidentified images, Churchill’s daughter Sarah is in a crowd behind him.
The collection is in three folders, with images known to be of the Cairo Conference first, then the Tehran Conference, and finally a few unidentified images.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply. All images are on photographic paper marked ‘Crown Copyright Reserved.’
[Item description]
Cairo and Tehran Conferences Photographs, 1943 (PC 206)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The provenance on these materials is confusing at best. They were donated to the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine ca. early 2021 by former faculty member Dr. Jack Alexander. They came in a set of materials tied to Dr. Harry Keown (1911-2007), another former faculty member. Within those, they were in an envelope, dated April, 1987 and addressed to Keown from Mr. and Mrs. R.W. Bailey of Placerville, CA. However, given that the envelope contained a variety of document from Keown’s life, it seems likely he simply reused the envelope and the materials had no tie to the Baileys. Further, neither Alexander nor Keown served in WWII, and so far as we can tell neither has any ties to the events in these images. In short, the full provenance of the materials is a mystery.
Lynn Haley of Veterinary Medicine transferred them to WSU Libraries’ MASC on Sept. 9, 2021, where they were retained as UPC-2105.
University archivist Mark O’English processed this collection in April of 2022.
The collection came with 13 photographs from Harry Keown’s childhood, which were regifted to the Victoria Historical Society. Some physical documents were discarded.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.