CHURCHILL - NOT THE SITUATION - IS GRAVE" An original Second World War press photograph of British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill in Quebec delivering a broadcast address to the Canadian People on 31 August 1943, just after the 'Quadrant' conference with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King

Quebec: National Film Board of Canada / Acme News Photos , 1943. Photograph. This is an original Second World War press photograph of Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill on 31 August 1943 delivering a broadcast address to the Canadian people from Quebec just after the 'Quadrant' conference with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King.

The gelatin silver print on glossy photo paper measures 8 x 6.125 inches (20.3 x 15.6 cm). Condition is very good, the image bright and complete, despite incidental scuffs and blemishes. The verso of the photograph features the original typed caption. The photograph is numbered “696626” credited to the “NEW YORK BUREAU” and titled “CHURCHILL – NOT THE SITUATION – IS GRAVE". The caption reads “QUEBEC – Prime Minister Winston Churchill strikes a serious pose just before broadcasting to the World in his first address after the Allied war conference in Quebec. Mr. Churchill, shown here in a National Film Board Photo, disclosed that the conference devoted itself primarily to the war with Japan.” Below this caption are two lines reading “BUR MGS LON” and CREDIT LINE (ACME) 9/2/43”. The date “SEP 1943” is ink-stamped twice on the caption.

Churchill’s First Quebec conference with Roosevelt in August 1943 was code-named “Quadrant”. Churchill was accompanied by his wife, daughter Mary, and a “formidable team” of two hundred, most of whom set sail aboard the Queen Mary in the afternoon of 5 August. En route, Churchill and his Chiefs of Staff discussed every aspect of the war, including the twice-postponed and much awaited cross-Channel invasion, “Overlord”. “It was Churchill’s first opportunity… to learn from his advisers the full details of the ‘Overlord’ plan…” (Gilbert, VII, p.462) While in Quebec, Churchill and Roosevelt both lived at the Citadel, the summer residence of the Governor-General, the upstairs floor of which was prepared for Roosevelt “with ramps fitted wherever necessary for his wheelchair.” (Gilbert, Vol. VII, p.468)

Following their short, initial stay in Quebec, Churchill was invited to Hyde Park, President Roosevelt’s home on the Hudson River. Churchill’s and Roosevelt’s discussions at both Hyde Park (12-14 August) and in Quebec (17-24 August), included the recent overthrow of Mussolini and battle to subjugate Italy, command of the forthcoming cross-Channel invasion (Churchill conceded to FDR’s choice of Eisenhower, passing over Brooke, to whom command had already been promised), command in South-East Asia, sharing of information on development of the atomic bomb, and relations with Stalin.

“On August 26, Churchill left Quebec for the Laurentian mountains, to a mountain retreat on the Montmorency river, La Cabane de Montmorency, and a fishing camp on the Lac des Neiges, four thousand feet above sea level.” It was “In the solitude at La Cabane” that “Churchill worked on the broadcast he had agreed to give to the Canadian people. “On the morning of August 31 Churchill returned to Quebec, where, from the Citadel, he made his broadcast to the Canadian People. ‘Here at the gateway of Canada,’ he proclaimed, ‘in mighty lands which have never known the totalitarian tyrannies of Hitler and Mussolini, the spirit of freedom has found safe and abiding home.’ …That night, Churchill left by train for Washington.” (Gilbert, VII, pp. 484-7)

This press photo once belonged to a newspaper’s working archive. During the first half of the twentieth century, photojournalism grew as a practice, fundamentally changing the way the public interacted with current events. Newspapers assembled expansive archives, including physical copies of all photographs published or deemed useful for potential future use, their versos typically marked with ink stamps and notes providing provenance and captions. Today these photographs exist as repositories of historical memory, technological artifacts, and often striking pieces of vernacular art.