Skip to main content
Label TextThis image was taken by a photojournalist working under the employ of the Associated Press, a US news agency founded in 1846 and still in operation. These photographers endeavored to take in-focus, direct, and straightforward illustrations of the war that would clearly communicate important events with the American public. Because the Korean War occurred before the advent of television news, it was the last American war that Americans received almost entirely through photos printed in newspapers and magazines.
DimensionsOverall: 8 3/8 x 6 3/4 in. (21.3 x 17.1 cm)
Accession Number 2025.200
Classificationsphotograph
ProvenanceJeff Perry; Des Moines Art Center [gift from the previous, 2025]
Sgt. Ralph Kilpatrick - Soldier Behind North Korea Lines for 77 Days: Taejon, South Korea: An army mess sergeant was the hero of the 24th Division when he returned from 77 death-despairing days behind communist lines. Ralph Kilpatrick, of Phoebus, Virginia, came out of the once-held enemy hills to his buddies in the 19th Infantry Regiment in good health with a harrowing story of grimly hanging to life in enemy-saturated territory. Kilpatrick is pictured as he received a medical checkup from Lieutenant Alfred J. Grose, of Rochester, New York, October 4, 1950
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
South Korea: Cpl. Francis Dickey, Miami Beach, Florida, shows his injured hand and damaged rifle after treatment in ambulance near the front lines. Cpl. Dickey advancing behind cover of a tank, was hit when sniper fire struck his rifle shattering the trigger housing. Fragments from the trigger lodged in Dickey’s right hand, August 11, 1950
1950
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
GI’s Take Koje Today: Businesslike GI’s, well-armed for their day’s work, march along a road on Koje Island with a large North Korean flag which they had just taken from prisoner-of-war compound 85. The enemy banner is one of the many symbols of defiance ordered removed the troublesome prisoner enclosures on the South Korean island, site of the largest Allied prisoner concentration, June 9, 1952
1952
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
South Korea: Grim looking supply drivers pictured as they arrived at rear base to load more supplies for front lines. Left to right: Cpl. Johnnie McLeroy, Paducah, Kentucky, and Pfc. Carlton Wright, Herbing, Arkansas, July 18, 1951
1951
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Battle Casualty: An unidentified United States Marine is aided down slope by two buddies after he and four others were injured by enemy mortar hit on crest of ridge in Naktong River sector of Korean forest, August 22, 1950
1950
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
South Korea: American wounded in battle in South Korea are evacuated by jeeps and litter from the front line. They pass a column of troops being moved up to the front. One man is going into battle well shaved as he soaps his face, July 10, 1950
1950
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Lines in Four Colors (Printed in Four Directions with Lines Crossing)
Sol LeWitt
1971
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
South Korea: Lt. Col. Kim Young, Korean Air Force commander, briefs part of the Korean volunteer group before take-off on mission over enemy held Korea, July 25, 1950
1950
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
South Korea: An American machine gun crew are well prepared for the enemy in the southwest sector of the Korean war zone. Left to right: Pfc. Richard Bowker, Cheyenne, South Dakota; Pfc. Carle Batty, Rock Island, Illinois; and Cpt. George E. Murphy, August, Georgia, August 7, 1950
1950
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Four Green Lines
Susan Rothenberg
1984
Photo Credit: Richard Sanders, Des Moines
Directional Lines (or, Dissonance)
Olga Rozanova
1913
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Sariwon, Korea: Civilian police guard North Korea Communists captured in the city. The prisoners have their hands tied behind their backs and huddle together for warmth. Just what will become of the prisoners in the event of further withdrawals is not unknown, December 12, 1950
1950
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Training Pays Off: South Korea: In the rugged, treacherous terrain of Korea, the battle of supply is quite often more important and more violent than the actual combat between men. One unit of the 19th Infantry Regiment, their stones and ammunition shrunken by poor transport and worse roads, discovered a small railroad. Near their position and proceed to make use of it. Utilizing some battered equipment and their own ingenuity, they fashioned an adequate supply line on rails. The tiny railroad was named “Spaulding’s Spur,” after an executive officer in the Regiment. A group of GI’s, aided by some South Koreans, assemble a railroad car from some discarded equipment they found, September 23, 1950
1950