As many of you know, my book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in the Age of Rage is scheduled for release in a few months. I am putting together the final edits and art. I have run into a curious problem with a widely referenced historical figure, socialist leader Charles Schenck. The defendant in Schenck v. United States is associated with the decision where Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes coined his famous “shouting fire” analogy. However, I have not been able to find a good picture of Schenck himself, a curious paucity of imagery given his historical importance. I may be missing some resource, so I thought I would reach out to our readership to see if anyone knows of such images. I found one image that may be Schenck but I was not able to confirm the authenticity.
Charles T. Schenck was general secretary of the U.S. Socialist Party and his conviction led to the historical decision in the Supreme Court in 1919. Many searches come up with a picture that is actually Oliver Wendell Holmes. Others are clearly the wrong Charles Schenck. There is one image that, when you run it down, is from a small site without confirming sources. Ideally, we are looking for a high resolution image with a confirmed source.
So, have you seen this man?
On a less urgent need, I am also trying to find a high resolution image of Montana Judge George M. Bourquin. His portrait is found at the Montana State House, which does have an image but they charge of its use and have an added charge for a high resolution digital image. I am exploring that option, but I am not sure if there are other public domain, high resolution photos of the judge. The portrait is accessible to the public in the capitol. There are plenty of images on the Internet, but it has to be a high resolution image to pass muster with the Simon & Schuster quality standards.
