<--PREV Doc #461  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #463 Document #462; October 9, 1953 To Mason K. Knuckles Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part III: The Space Age Begins; October 1957 to January 1958 Chapter 6: Building strength when there is "no perfect answer"   Dear Mason:1 I have not the slightest idea as to how you could proceed in determining whether or not some of the proceeds from the commercial sale of my picture could be diverted to Denver University. In fact, I knew nothing at all about the sale of this picture until this summer when you and others told me that the photographer who made it was selling it in very considerable numbers.2 In the first place, my picture was made so often during the campaign summer that I never bothered to inquire as to the identity of any of the photographers or the purpose for which the resulting picture was to be used. It is possible that there was some arrangement made between the official Republican committee and the photographer in question; if so, and if the photographer is living inside the terms of any such agreement, then I guess there is nothing to be done about it.3 I shall ask Governor Adams to comment on the point, because if any agreement was made I should think that he must have been a party to it.4 My own feeling in the matter is that if my wishes have any legal or persuasive influence in the matter at all, then I would like to see any commercial venture of this sort which by its nature is exploiting a public figure, make some public service use of part of the proceeds. In this particular case I suggested assistance for the Denver University, but I would try to make clear that I was completely devoid of any information on the matter and merely tried to express my own hope that something of that kind could be worked out.5 If Governor Adams has anything he can add to this letter, you will probably find it attached hereto.6 With personal regard. Sincerely 1 Knuckles, an insurance agent in Denver, Colorado, was a member of the board of trustees of the University of Denver and president of the Republican Club of Denver. He had met the vacationing Eisenhower in Denver in 1952, following the Republican National Convention. Knuckles would later congratulate the President-elect on his victory (Knuckles to Eisenhower, Nov. 10, 1952, and Arthur H. Vandenberg to Knuckles, Nov. 17, 1952, both in WHCF/OF 138, Colorado). Eisenhower and Knuckles had met again in Denver in September 1953, once on the fourteenth at Lowry Air Force Base and again on the sixteenth for golf at the Cherry Hills Country Club (President's daily appointments). 2 Knuckles had written on October 7 regarding a conversation they had had at the Cherry Hills Country Club concerning whether some proceeds from the sale of "official" campaign photographs of the President could be directed to the University of Denver as a charitable contribution (WHCF/OF 101-H). Knuckles said that the board of trustees was "delighted" at the prospect but was "at a loss as to how to proceed on the matter." 3 The portrait in question had been ordered by the Citizens for Eisenhower Committee during the 1952 campaign from the Forever Portrait Company, of Dobbs Ferry, New York, which in turn commissioned Peter J. Berkeley, a photographer from the Lainson Studios, in Denver, to photograph Eisenhower (see Lou Gross to Berkeley, July 12, 1953, WHCF/OF 101-H). Berkeley would ultimately deny that he had received personal profit from the sale of the photographs. "All I received is my name on each print, as promised," he would write to James C. Hagerty on March 7, 1954 (ibid.). 4 In a typewritten note on Knuckles's letter, Sherman Adams wrote that he "certainly had nothing to do with it" and suggested that the President ask Thomas E. Stephens or James C. Hagerty about it. 5 In the fall of 1954 Berkeley would send the negative and prints of his photograph of the President to Ann C. Whitman, emphasizing that "no photos have been sold from this film." He would offer exclusive use of the negative "without any strings attached" (Oct. 28, 1954, WHCF/OF 138, Colorado). Whitman declined in a letter of November 8 (ibid. See also Gross to Robert W. Selig, Dec. 12, 1953, WHCF/OF 101-H). 6 On October 12 Whitman would inform Knuckles that Adams had nothing to add to the President's letter (ibid.). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Mason K. Knuckles, 9 October 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 462. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/462.cfm <--PREV Doc #461  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #463

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