A private collection of historic
and compelling photographs will be displayed at the home of Bettina and Fred Stelle in North Haven on Friday for
the first time since they were taken in the years between 1936 and 1945, but anyone who wants to see them will
have to donate $150 to the Southampton Democratic Committee.
The photographs document the travels and experiences of Joseph E. Davies, who served as U.S. ambassador to the
Soviet Union, Belgium and Luxembourg under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and as a special envoy to the Soviet
Union during World War II. His granddaughter, Mia Grosjean of Sag Harbor, has digitally remastered 15 selected
prints and negatives from photo albums kept private until now by her mother, Emlen Knight Davies.
Ms. Grosjean, a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, said she thought this was a good time to show the images,
not only as a draw for the fund-raiser, but because a new batch of her grandfather’s papers, a series of top secret
dispatches, are in the process of being declassified by the National Security Council.
“We didn’t know anything about the top secret papers,” Ms. Grosjean said, explaining that the family only recently
learned of the new batch of documents, and, outside of a selection kept private by Ms. Davies, thought almost all
of her grandfather’s papers had been released years ago. According to Ms. Grosjean, Congressman Tim Bishop wrote
a letter to the National Security Council in the beginning of this year and has not yet received a response, but
she expects the papers will be opened soon.
“I’d love to find out why it took so long—it’s 62 years,” Ms. Grosjean said of the papers, which are in the Library
of Congress, though they are technically stewarded by her mother. She said that despite the family connection to
the papers, she does not believe she would be permitted to read the more sensitive documents.
“There were many things Mother never saw,” Ms. Grosjean said.
Ms. Davies, now 91, travelled with her father as they went from New York to Paris to Moscow on Mr. Davies’s missions
where he was asked by FDR to assess the economic situation in Russia and secure an alliance with Joseph Stalin
in the years before and during United States involvement in World War II. The trips are documented in several worn
photo albums containing images that provide a unique, insider’s view of the political process and paint a picture
of a bygone era in several countries.
One of the photographs Ms. Grosjean shared at her home on Sunday pictures Mr. Davies, in a distinguished suit complete
with hat and cane, standing in the wide entrance to the U.S. Chancery in Moscow in 1938. Alongside him and framed
by the outlines of the Kremlin, its spires bathed in light or mist, stands U.S. Consul Angus Ward as well as Loy
Henderson, assistant chief of European affairs, Col. Philip Faymonville, military attaché of the U.S. Embassy
and Nick Chipman, a U.S. Embassy staffer. The men appear small in the large structured entry, even though most
of them are important figures of the day. In other images, Mr. Davies can be seen with the likes of Winston Churchill,
FDR and Joseph Stalin.
“Working with Stalin was like whistling past a graveyard,” Ms. Grosjean said, quoting her grandfather when he explained
the tenuous position in which he was placed, having to befriend the dictator.
Mr. Davies was considered a controversial character because people viewed him as “cozying up to Stalin,” but Ms.
Grosjean said the friendship was necessary as FDR asked the ambassador to keep the Soviets fighting against Germany.
“We would not have won the war if the Germans had fought on only one front,” she said, adding that 10 to 25 million
Russians died during the war, and many of those casualties were from fighting on the Russian front. Ms. Grosjean
said that part of the war spread the German focus, which may have been vital to the American victory.
Ms. Grosjean said she’s had a camera in hand since childhood, became interested in digital printing more recently
and
has since become masterfully adept at the craft. To translate a small print, with more than 60 years of wear, from
a photo album into a clear, nearly 30-inch-by-40-inch image is no small task.
“They’re an enormous amount of work, believe me,” Ms. Grosjean said. She keeps her process a secret, but preparing
each print to the point where the resolution, contrast and image quality are as striking as many of the prints
appear can take weeks of work and the separation of multiple layers as scratches and marks are removed and the
image is clarified.
The final product is then printed using special archival carbon sepia and selenium pigmented inks on archival Hanhnemuhle
fine art paper.
For Ms. Grosjean, who would like to display the images in a museum and perhaps galleries, Friday’s showing is all
about the Southampton Democrats.
“My grandfather was a Democrat—underline, Democrat,” she said, also noting his rise to prominence in the Wilson
administration with FDR, and her belief that he would be pleased at her cause.
“From New York to Paris to Moscow: Travels with FDR’s Ambassador, Joseph E.Davies1936-1945”willbeonviewat thehomeofNorthHavenarchitectFred
Stelle and his wife Bettina from 5:30 to8:30p.m.onFriday,August24.Limited tickets are available at $150 each andcanbepurchasedbycallingMarla
Schwenk at 283-0983 or e-mailing to info@shdems.org.
Southampton Democratic Committee • PO Box 384 • Westhampton • New York
11977