Safety fountain pen used by a courtroom illustrator at the Major War Crimes Trial

Safety fountain pen used by a courtroom illustrator at the Major War Crimes Trial 

Safety fountain pen used by a courtroom illustrator at the Major War Crimes Trial 

overall: Height: 4.875 inches (12.383 cm) | Diameter: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm) 

Waterman-style safety fountain pen used by Edward Vebell, 24, to create courtroom sketches at the 1945 Trial of Major German War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. The sketches were published in the U.S. Army newspaper Stars and Stripes on December 9, 1945. A young commercial artist when he was drafted for the US Army, Vebell was the first staff illustrator for Stars and Stripes. His assignments included combat zones in Italy and France. For the Nuremberg trial assignment, he sat in the press gallery for 3 days and used field glasses to “bore into the faces” of the defendants, including Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goering, as he sketched. He did 90% of his drawing in the courtroom, seeking to bring intimacy to the historical proceedings. See 2003.435 for the nine drawings in the USHMM collection.