WWI camouflage of Massachusetts State House dome

STATE HOUSE DOME IS TO BE DISGUISED in Christian Science Monitor (June 6, 1918)—

BOSTON, Mass—In view of the presence of submarines off the Atlantic coast, the State House Commission has decided to camouflage the gilded dome of the Massachusetts State House. This decision was reached after a consultation with military and naval authorities here. It was stated that the firm which last gilded the dome has advised that the dome be painted battleship gray. In lieu of this, it may be covered with green canvas. 

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

Homer St. Gaudens as drawn by Gordon Stevenson

Above Cover of TIME magazine (May 12, 1924), featuring a portrait of Homer St. Gaudens (son of the celebrated sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens), who was in charge of US Army camouflage during both World Wars. It is of additional interest that this pencil-drawn portrait of St Gaudens was made by artist Gordon Stevenson, who served as a ship camoufleur with the US Navy during WWI.

•••

War diary of John Lee McElroy, 1st Lieut. 315th Field Artillery, 155th Brigade. Camden, N.J: Haddon Press, c1929, p. 8—

This afternoon I had fallen asleep while studying a map. My head had sunk down on my arms on the table, and I was aroused by someone shaking me by the shoulder. He was a very good looking Major, and said I evidently had not been to sleep for some time. I admitted it. Said he wanted to inspect my camouflage, as he was camouflage officer for the sector. His name is Homer St. Gaudens. 

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

sculptor Frederick Triebel denied role as camoufleur

American artist Frederick E. Triebel (1865-1944) was not a camouflage artist. He was certainly qualified, and he offered to enlist as that during World War I. But to no avail, with his age as a possible factor.

He was born in Peoria IL, and his parents were from Germany, where his father had been a sculptor, a stone carver and monument craftsman. Frederick followed his father’s profession. He apprenticed to a Chicago stone carver, and subsequently studied art in New York, Boston, and in Florence, Italy. When he returned to the US in 1899, he was the first artist to locate his studio in MacDougal Alley in Greenwich Village. His studio was at No. 6.

When the US entered WWI in 1917, Triebel applied unsuccessfully to be a US army camoufleur. He also asked to be assigned to the American Intelligence Service as an interpreter. But that too was denied, so he then applied to work for the YMCA in France, in connection with their duty huts.

As reported in an article titled SCULPTOR A SHIP WORKER: F.E. Triebell Applied in Overalls for a job at Hog Island (China Press, December 15, 1918)—

 “Finally, he attired himself in a laborer’s clothes, journeyed to Hog Island [a major shipyard] and applied for a position.”

In applying, he said “'1 am a stone cutter and have worked at the trade nearly all my life.’

The interviewer did not reply immediately. He was looking at the hand which rested on his desk. It was long, slim, and with tapering fingers, the nails neatly manicured and in appearance as soft as a woman's.

‘I am sorry, but we have no positions open for stone cutters at this time,’ the interviewer said.

‘Then you can use a tracer?’ the applicant persisted. ‘I really have few superiors in that line.’

Tracers were badly needed, an affirmative reply was given, the applicant was accepted and put to work.” 

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

the role of taxidermy in World War I field camouflage

Above The headline for this photograph was WITH AID OF TAXIDERMIST, FRENCH HID BATTERY IN PASTORAL SCENE BY CAMOUFLAGE. It appeared in the Bourbon News (October 2, 1917) with the following caption—

How artfully have the French concealed a battery in this bucolic spot on the Western Front by placing there a crudely fashioned cow, the product of a field taxidermist. It is in this country that the German airmen have made some of their most effective attacks of late. In order to hide from piercing enemy eyes that look from the skies, the French have contrived this form of camouflage. The battery is entirely hidden by a green cloth, draping over which is tattered leaves and boughs. The artificial cow (its tail wags and its head moves) has been set up on stilts from below. During an attack the drapery is withdrawn and the guns brought into action.  

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

New York City bootblack camouflages woman's legs

Above This news photograph, with the headline LOOK, GIRLS’ COOLER’N SILK HOSE, appeared in the Arizona Republican (August 3, 1919) with the following caption—

New York—No more will the busy bodies worry over the working girl’s silk hose. Not if said working girl adopts this latest New York fad. It’s the “Keep Cool Stockings, Stenciled While You aWait.” Miss Alice Monroe of Broadway is giving the bootblack in the picture the job of decorating her bare legs. Note the paper stencil and brush with which the “camouflage” is applied.

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

students camouflaged in annual campus flour fight

Above Absurdities abound. This news photograph, from the Guthrie Daily Leader in Guthrie OK (May 25, 1920, p. 4), purports to show freshman students at the University of Pennsylvania, who have “camouflaged themselves for the annual flour fight.” 

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

WWI camouflaged clowns perform at the French front

Above Photograph from a news article titled HERE’S SIDESHOW TO WAR’S BIG TENT in the Perth Amboy [New Jersey] Evening News (September 4, 1917). The caption reads—

These clowns [presumably French or American soldiers] show camouflage in a lighter vein at the French front. They are making themselves “look like what they ain’t” in order to mix a little play with the grim work of the poilus. They were professional clowns before the war, and have dressed in improvised costumes to entertain their comrades.

See also essay / booklet on Under the Big Top at Sims’ Circus: Ship Camouflage Behind the Scenes in WWI.

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

Boston police find gun camouflaged as a pocket knife

Above Photograph from a news article titled PISTOL CAMOUFLAGED AS A KNIFE WHICH WAS DISCOVERED BY THE BOSTON POLICE in the Albuquerque Morning Journal (January 5, 1920, p. 2). The caption reads—

A weapon cunningly contrived to suit the criminal’s purposes was discovered recently by the Boston police. It is a pistol camouflaged as a pocket knife. The knife is about four inches long with a blade half an inch shorter. On the underside is a chamber which holds a 22 calibre cartridge. This is pushed back into the knife handle after loading. A spring activated lever is in the top of the knife. To fire the pistol this lever is pulled out. On snapping back it fires the cartridge.

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

the camouflage of the backs of low-cut evening gowns

Above This news photograph was published in the Evening Journal (Wilmington DE), May 8, 1920, p. 1, shortly after the end of World War I, when camouflaged ships were still prominent in everyone’s mind. The headline read “CAMOUFLAGED” BACKS LATEST FAD.

[In Boston, the photo caption reads] Something had to be done when styles kept dropping dresses lowers and lower in the back. And it fell to Adolf Boulnois to solve the problem. Boulnois, who had learned art, “as she really is,” in many world’s fashion centers, is now painting ships, or some such, in the middle of fair backs—or bare backs. It’s the latest American fad.

Another article, in the Chico Record (May 11, 1920), which uses the same photograph, reads as follows—

The fad of painting decorations on milady’s back, which came into vogue with the arrival of backless waists, is growing. This picture shows that. At first the more daring maids had tiny mice or little rosebuds or military insignia painted on their shoulders. Recently Miss Marjorie Barnes, of the "Listen Lester” company in New York, engaged Adolf Boulnois, said to be the originator of the fad, to paint a ship under full sail on her back. One of the newest low-cut gowns designed for Miss Barnes gives her an opportunity to display the painting.

The artist was Adolf Henrick Boulnois, from Winthrop MA, who had been born in Germany on September 17, 1889.

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

the squad of daubers who applied camouflage patterns

Above I have no good explanation for this. It is a group photograph that appeared in the Evening Public Ledger-Philadelphia on August 21, 1918, p. 11, with the headline WHAT THE BOYS IN SHIPYARDS ARE DOING: The “Camouflage Club” of Hog Island. 

I haven’t the names of any of those in the photograph. I only know that they are “the squad of daubers who have been picked up to give the Quistconck, the first ship launched at the big [Hog Island] shipyard, her first coat of camouflage. See their paint pots and brushes then study their countenances and see if they aren’t fit to fool the Kaiser’s U-boats skippers.”

Who are they? I don’t recognize any of them. Are they Philadelphia-area civilian artists who have been hired to paint the ship? Presumably. But some might also simply be house painters.

Whatever, the end result of their efforts is pictured below, the dazzle-painted USS Quistconck.

RELATED LINKS    

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus