Title from caption on object: “History Was Made When President Roosevelt Signed Declaration of War against Japan...”

December 8, 1941

Abbie Rowe

Associated Names
Abbie Rowe

Artist, American, 1905 - 1967

The image shows a man seated at a desk, leaning forward over a document with one hand holding a pen and the other resting on the paper. He has a long face, neatly combed back hair, and is dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, and dark tie. He wears a ring on his left ring finger. The background is a plain wall with part of a large chair visible. The desk is cluttered with papers, and the image is edited with handwritten notes and markings in black ink around the edges.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print with applied color

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon

  • Dimensions

    image: 23.5 × 18.7 cm (9 1/4 × 7 3/8 in.)
    sheet: 25.3 × 20.5 cm (9 15/16 × 8 1/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2018.177.326

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(sale, Ebay.com); Mary and Dan Solomon, Monarch Beach, CA; gift to NGA, 2018.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

retouching across recto in white and black paint; crop marks top center, lower right, and bottom center in black ink; by unknown hand, top left in black ink: VE 1 [circled]; center right in graphite perpendicular: [illegible] -9"-; lower right: 1895; bottom center in black ink: SIGNS DECLARATION OF WAR; bottom right in graphite: E915; on verso, by unknown hand, upper left in red crayon perpendicular and circled: 8; upper left in graphite circled: 1; upper right in graphite: 9 1/2; center left illegible printing notes in blue crayon and graphite perpendicular; center left stamped in purple ink perpendicular: PM RECD / [cut off]; center stamped in red ink on applied newspaper inverted: Herald-American AUG 15 1955; center printed in black ink on applied newspaper perpendicular: FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT / He charted victory course.; center printed in black ink on applied newspaper: [reproduction of image] / HISTORY was made when President Roosevelt signed / declaration of war against Japan on Dec. 8, 1941, / one day after sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.; center right stamped in red ink on applied newspaper perpendicular: Herald-American APR 18 1945; by unknown hand, center right in blue crayon on applied newspaper perpendicular: 21669; lower left stamped in purple ink perpendicular: PM RECD / [clock] / AMERICAN / ENG. ROOM; lower left printed in black ink on applied barcode label perpendicular: AGO-787-CT; by unknown hand, lower center in red crayon circled and inverted: 20; lower center stamped in purple ink inverted: PM FILE [crossed out in graphite] / [clock] / AMERICAN / ENG. ROOM / MAY 7 45; by unknown hand, lower right illegible printing note in graphite