Photographs

These photographs reflect the full range of Hewlett Johnson's interests and activities, as a public and a private figure. Trips to China, Russia, America, Australia and East Germany are represented in this section, as well as photographs taken closer to home, in Canterbury, Manchester and Wales. There are also a series of nine photographs of designs for Murder in the Cathedral, which Johnson commissioned from his friend T. S. Eliot for the 1935 Canterbury Festival.

The majority of these photographs are loose, but some are contained within albums to mark specific trips or events, such as the award of the Stalin Peace Prize, or Johnson's attendance at the All-Union Peace Conference in Moscow, 1949. Some of these albums appear to have been gifts.

Hewlett Johnson was a striking figure and was often photographed for publicity purposes. During his travels, including several trips to Russia, China and later to Cuba, Johnson was photographed visiting various places and people. Johnson remained in Canterbury throughout the Second World War, and there are photographs of bomb damage and visits the Dean made around the city.

As Johnson's fame increased, he was invited to Madison Square Garden in New York in 1945 for an American-Soviet Friendship Rally, and was awarded with the International Stalin Peace Prize in 1951. In the course of Johnson's controversial career, he met many famous people, some of whom were photographed with him. These include Mahatma Gandhi, Paul Robeson, Nikita Khrushchev, Chairman Mao and Fidel Castro.

The copyright of these images is not owned by the University of Kent. Any commercial use of these images should be cleared by the publisher with the copyright owner before publication.