Harry's War: Historic Photos

Harry Hopkins 1912 is best known as a the architect of the Works Progress Administration. But he had an arguably more important role in world history — as an aide to F.D.R. during the Second World War. As the president’s personal envoy to Churchill and Stalin, Hopkins played “a sometimes decisive part in the whole movement of the war,” according to Churchill.

Here in intimate photographs and revealing captions, assembled for the first time in David Roll’s new book The Hopkins Touch: Harry Hopkins and the Forging of the Alliance to Defeat Hitler (Oxford University Press, January, 2013) and used by his generous permission here, is a photoessay focussing on that often overlooked aspect of Hopkins illustrious career. Images have been cropped to fit.

Read a more complete account of Hopkins life — including his Grinnell childhood and college days, a collection of spicy quotes about him and from him, and additional photographs — in the Winter 2012 issue of The Grinnell Magazine.