<--PREV Doc #1283  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1285 Document #1284; August 7, 1959 To Benjamin Franklin Fairless Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part VII: Berlin and the Chance for a Summit; March 1959 to August 1959 Chapter 18: "These extremist approaches"   Dear Ben: With a great deal of trepidation and only at the insistent and inexplicable urging of Bob Woodruff, I am sending to you a sample of my amateurish "painting." My effort is supposed to be representative of Benjamin Franklin. As my model I used a lithograph made from an original painting by Duplessis.1 My diffidence in sending this to you is accompanied by a quit claim deed that allows you (without prejudice) to store the thing in a blazing furnace or in the ash can. But in defense of my temerity I plead the fact that you bear the name of Benjamin Franklin and that, like him, you fall within my own classification of "distinguished citizens." As ever P.S. Another suggestion from Bob is that this work of art should finally find its resting place in the Fairless Library.2 His contention is that this might symbolize your leadership in the development of the Eisenhower Library in Kansas.3 My own feeling is that this would be merely adding super-egotism on top of egotism! 1 Fairless, former president of U.S. Steel and coordinator of the President's Citizens Advisors on the Mutual Security Program, was a member of the Western Pennsylvania Arts League. Robert W. Woodruff was president of the Coca-Cola Company. The painting of Benjamin Franklin by French painter Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725 - 1802) is said to convey Franklin's intelligence and was among many diverse compositions the artist exhibited in the Salon Carré of the Louvre in 1779. 2 Fairless would hang the painting in his library (Eisenhower to Fairless, Sept. 11, 1959, AWF/D). 3 On October 13, 1959, Eisenhower and Fairless would attend the groundbreaking ceremonies of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene (for background see no. 899). In a thank-you letter to the President Fairless would say it was a "great honor and a distinct pleasure" to be connected with the project (Oct. 16, 1959, AWF/D). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Benjamin Franklin Fairless, 7 August 1959. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1284. 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/second-term/documents/1284.cfm <--PREV Doc #1283  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1285

Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission 1629 K Street, NW Suite 801 Washington DC 20006 Phone: 202.296.0004    Fax: 202.296.6464