Sketching the Scene

Posted on by Susan Laney Spector

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 4: Witness to History

PROMPT: What historical events did your ancestor witness or live through? Don’t forget that local history is just as important as world history!
Joe Stern, a self-portrait

My husband’s “Grandpa Joe” not only lived through and personally witnessed a lot of major historical events of the twentieth century, but he personally documented many of those events.

Joseph Stern (1890-1971), born in what is now Ukraine, immigrated with members of his family to America in 1898. They initially stayed with family members in New York City, but sometime before 1911, when he became a naturalized citizen, he and his family settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, outside of Boston.

For sixty-two years, Joe was a cartoonist. He drew pictures for the news and sports pages of various publications including the Boston Herald. His pictures earned places in the Harry Truman Library and the archives of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He also covered many New England murder trials. Other notable historical events at which he was in attendance and presumably sketched were the Scopes trial, the Lindenbergh trial, and the 1948 Democratic convention.

A young Joe Stern at his easel.

One of Joe’s other grandsons, Steve Stern, has curated some of Joe’s drawings in The Joe Stern Political Cartoon Archives, a Facebook page. Steve has also published a book of original Joe Stern political cartoons, available on Amazon.

Below are just a few examples of Joe Stern as observer and chronicler of the history playing out in front of or around him. Captions in italics are those of Steve Stern:

This work was published in the Boston Herald during the Cold War and it’s surprising to be talking about nuclear proliferation today.
As the caption reads, “Is that bad?” 
In 1951, U.S. interests swung abruptly from Europe to Asia.
This Joe Stern cartoon, published about four weeks after President Truman’s sacking of General MacArthur, depicts the nation’s shift in attention.
This was Joe Stern’s editorial cartoon marking
Queen Elizabeth II’s accession on February 6, 1952.
Joe Stern’s November 13, 1960 Boston Herald cartoon featuring JFK uses a football metaphor to illustrate the very close Presidential Election—just days earlier. John Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in the Electoral College 303-219, but the popular vote was razor thin: 49.7% to 49.5%. 
Joe Stern at work
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Published by Susan Laney Spector

For thirty years, I have been a member of the oboe section in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. I am a New York Mets full season-ticket holder. My site Perfect Pitch explores the intersection of Major League Baseball and playing for my own team at the MET. On my site Talking Leaves, I profile my progenitors and genealogical pursuits.

6 thoughts on “Sketching the Scene”

  1. Wow, very interesting and cool that Grandpa Joe was such a talented, big-time cartoonist. His “Is That Bad?” picture is both hilarious (thumbs up! 🙂 & scary. Thanks for sharing, Susan.

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  4. As a lifelong credit union enthusiast, I am a HUGE fan of “Grandpa Joe’s” artwork, particularly the many variations of the “Little Man Under the Umbrella” and his countless other credit union works of art. (Personally, I’ve been on a mission to own an original for years but have come up empty.)

    Ironically, I created https://umbrellaman.org/ to help bring back the Umbrella Man into the credit union zeitgeist.

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